ED SPANJAARD

Ed Spanjaard

Despite his relatively late debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Ed Spanjaard is one of the leading Dutch conductors. His repertoire covers three centuries, but he is specialised in French music of around 1900 and contemporary works. He is increasingly gravitating toward opera.
Full biography

Instruments

dirigent, piano

Mentioned in the biography of

1969   Marcel Beekman
1970   Lawrence Renes
1982   Nieuw Ensemble
1993   Irene Maessen
1995   Nationale Reisopera
2002   Henk Neven
2002   Ruud van Eeten
2008   Thomas Beijer
2011   Lenneke Ruiten
2011   Robbert Muuse
2013   Randal Corsen
2014   Frans Brüggen
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Biography Ed Spanjaard

Despite his relatively late debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Ed Spanjaard is one of the leading Dutch conductors. His repertoire covers three centuries, but he is specialised in French music of around 1900 and contemporary works. He is increasingly gravitating toward opera.

Played in

Atlas Ensemble   dirigent
Nieuw Ensemble   dirigent

1948 - 1970

Ed Spanjaard is born on April 12 in Haarlem. He studies the piano and orchestral conducting in Amsterdam and London.

1973

Spanjaard is a répétiteur and assistant conductor at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (under Colin Davis and others), Glyndebourne Festival, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (under Bernard Haitink). He is also the assistant of Leonard Bernstein and of Herbert von Karajan.

1976

Spanjaard conducts Richard Strauss' 'Ariadne auf Naxos' (1912) at Covent Garden.

1980

He conducts the Holland Festival premiere of Peter Schat's 'Aap verslaat de Knekelgeest' [Monkey Subdues the White Bone Demon, 1978], a production with soloists, mimes, acrobats and the Netherlands Wind Ensemble.

1982 - 1989

Spanjaard is the regular guest conductor of the Limburg Symphony Orchestra.

1982

He becomes the conductor of the Nieuw Ensemble.

1983

Spanjaard is involved in the preparations for the production in Bayreuth of Wagner's 'Der Ring des Nibelungen' conducted by Sir Georg Solti.

1991

“Out of pure interest”, Spanjaard begins studying Flamenco dancing and says that he has become “more supple conducting and less hindered by all of the eyes on his back” (in an interview with Paul Janssen in 'Mens en Melodie', May 1995, p. 279).

1993

Spanjaard conducts the Nieuw Ensemble in the premiere of Ton de Leeuw's 'Fauxbordon' at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw during the Holland Festival.

1994

He conducts Giacomo Puccini's 'La Bohème' with Opera Zuid.

1995

He leads the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Gustav Mahler's 'First Symphony' during the state visit of Queen Beatrix to Israel.

1996

He makes his debut with De Nederlandse Opera with Giuseppe Verdi's 'Rigoletto'.

1998

He conducts the premiere of Robert Heppener's opera 'Een ziel van hout' [A Wooden Soul] at the Holland Festival.

1999

A CD of choral music by Rudolf Escher with Spanjaard conducting the Netherlands Chamber Choir receives an Edison Award.

2000

In Rotterdam's Ahoy hall, he conducts Verdi's 'La Traviata'. He makes his Frankfurter Oper debut in June with the Ensemble Modern.

2001

Spanjaard makes his official debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra – after he is regularly invited to guest conduct. He is appointed chief conductor of the Limburg Symphony Orchestra.

2002

Spanjaard conducts the music at the church wedding services of Prince Willem Alexander and Maxima. In Berlin, he conducts the Nieuw Ensemble in the premiere of Theo Loevendie's 'Seyir' (2002).

2007

In short succession, he conducts two premieres of music by Marijn Simons: the 'Second Symphony' and the 'Concerto for an Odd Couple'.

2008

Spanjaard is the piano soloist in a performance with the Limburg Symphony Orchestra of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 'Piano Concerto' in A major, K 488. The conductor is Jaap van Zweden. At the inauguration of the new music theatre in Enschede, Spanjaard conducts the world premiere of Willem Jeth's opera 'Hôtel de Pekin'.

2009

He conducts the premiere of Michel van der Aa's 'Spaces of Blank', with the mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In September, he conducts the Nationale Reisopera's production of Richard Wagner's 'Das Rheingold'.

Photos Ed Spanjaard

Audio/Video Ed Spanjaard