Professors

1st photo: Bert Hulselmans, 2nd photo: Theresa Pewal

Jaap van Zweden began his tenure as the 26th Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2018. He also serves as Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, a post he has held since 2012. He has conducted orchestras on three continents, appearing as guest with leading orchestras such as, in Europe, the Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic, and, in the United States, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. 
In October 2022 Jaap van Zweden and the New York Philharmonic reopen the renovated David Geffen Hall with HOME, a month-long housewarming for the Orchestra and its audiences. Other 2022–23 season highlights include SPIRIT, which explores humanity’s relationship with the cosmos through performances of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-symphonie and J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and EARTH, a response to the climate crisis that includes Julia Wolfe’s unEarth and John Luther Adams’s Become Desert. 
Born in Amsterdam, Jaap van Zweden, at age 19, was appointed the youngest-ever concertmaster of Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He began his conducting career almost 20 years later, in 1996. Recently named Conductor Emeritus of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, he remains Honorary Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, where he was Chief Conductor (2005–13); served as Chief Conductor of the Royal Flanders Orchestra (2008–11); and was Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (2008–18), where he is now Conductor Laureate. Jaap van Zweden was named Musical America’s 2012 Conductor of the Year and was the subject of an October 2018 CBS 60 Minutes profile on the occasion of his arrival at the New York Philharmonic. In 2020 he was awarded the prestigious Concertgebouw Prize, and in 2019, under his leadership, the Hong Kong Philharmonic was named Gramophone’s Orchestra of the Year.
Jaap van Zweden has recorded numerous renowned recordings, including world premieres by David Lang and Julia Wolfe. Since his debut in Gstaad (2017), he produced several live recordings with the Gstaad Festival Orchestra, including Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony and Brahms' 4th Symphony. 
In 1997 Jaap van Zweden and his wife, Aaltje, established the Papageno Foundation to support families of children with autism.

Jaap van Zweden - Biography

As professor of Conducting at the Zurich University of the Arts since 1999, Johannes Schlaefli has developed Switzerland‘s most prestigious conducting class, now seen as one of the most successful and sought-after conducting schools in Europe.

He has become one of the world‘s most highly regarded conducting teachers. Invitations to the Juilliard School New York, the Sibelius Academy Helsinki, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Music-Academies in Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg, Weimar, Oslo and the Aspen Music Festival or as «Head of Teaching» at the Conducting Academy of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival testify to this fact.

In addition to his work as a conducting teacher, he is the chief-conductor of the symphony orchestra «Collegium Musicum Basel».

Johannes Schlaefli - Biography