Jan Willem de Vriend at Wiener Konzerthaus 2026-02-28T19:30:00
Jan Willem de Vriend is Principal Conductor of the Wiener KammerOrchester, Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, and Artistic Partner of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. He regularly appears with top orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, HR-Sinfonieorchester, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Melbourne Symphony, and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra.
De Vriend first established an international reputation as Artistic Director of the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, which he established in 1982 and led from the violin until 2015. Specialising in music of the 17th and 18th century, and applying historically informed practice on modern instruments, the consort gave new life to many rarely heard works.
In the field of opera, in both Europe and the USA, de Vriend and Combattimento Consort Amsterdam gave performances of works by Monteverdi, Haydn, Handel, Telemann, and J.S. Bach (the Hunting and Coffee cantatas at the Leipzig Bach Festival), all in stagings by the director Eva Buchmann. Operas by such composers as Mozart, Verdi and Cherubini featured in his seasons with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, which included a visit to Switzerland with productions of Don Giovanni and Rossini’s La Gazzetta, again directed by Eva Buchmann. De Vriend has also conducted operas in Amsterdam (Nederlandse Reisopera), Barcelona, Strasbourg, Luzern, Schwetzingen and Bergen.
Recent recordings include Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 12 (Dejan Lazić), Schumann Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4, and Emilie Mayer Symphonies Nos. 4 & 6. He has recorded complete symphonies by Beethoven (with soloists such as Hannes Minnaar), Mendelssohn, and Schubert.