Amsterdam-born Jaap van Zweden is one of today’s most sought-after conductors. Recently named Musical America’s Conductor of the Year for 2012, he has been Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic since 2012/13 season.
 
Maestro van Zweden is currently Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Honorary Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Honorary Conductor of the Radio Chamber Philharmonic. Appointed at age nineteen as the youngest Concertmaster ever of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, he began his conducting career in 1995, successively holding the positions of Chief Conductor at the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra (1996-2000), Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague (2000-2005) and Chief Conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra (2008-2011).

Prestigious orchestras he works with regularly include the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Munich Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Orchestre National de France, and the London Philharmonic. Maestro van Zweden has conducted at major international festivals including the BBC Proms, and the Tanglewood and Aspen Festivals.  His recent subscription débuts with the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony have garnered overwhelming critical acclaim.

Opera also plays an important part in his activities. His repertoire includes La Traviata and Fidelio (National Reisopera), Madame Butterfly (Netherlands Opera), Otello, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Lohengrin, Parsifal and Vanessa.

He has recorded the complete Beethoven symphonies with the Residentie Orchestra, Shostakovich Symphony No.5 with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Mahler Symphony No.5 (recorded live at his London Philharmonic début), Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and the Brahms symphonies with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, with whom he is currently recording a Bruckner cycle for the Octavia label, with symphonies 2, 4, 5, 7 and 9 already released to great critical acclaim.

Fourteen years ago, Maestro van Zweden and his wife Aaltje established the Papageno Foundation, its objective being to support families with one or more children with autism. Over the years, that support has taken shape in a number of projects, such as Music Therapy and Music Makers, where professional music therapists and musicians, who receive additional training from Papageno, use music and make music with autistic children.