Jac van Steen

Jac van Steen was born in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and studied conducting at the Brabant Conservatory of Music. His participation in the BBC European Conductors' Seminar in September 1985 led to guest engagements with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
From 1986 to 1990 he was conductor and musical director of the Nijmegen Bach Choir. He was also Music Director of the National Ballet in Amsterdam, a post he held until the end of the 1993-94 season. The Bochumer Symphoniker in Germany appointed him permanent guest conductor for the 1992-93 season, a position he held until September 1994. In September 1997 Jac van Steen was appointed Chief Conductor of the Nuerenberg Symphony Orchestra in Germany, and in September 1999 he was appointed Chief Conductor and Music Director of the New Berlin Chamber Orchestra.

© photo Petr Dyrc

In August 2002 Jac van Steen was appointed Music Director of the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar and Principal Conductor of the Staatskapelle Weimar (until August 2005), and in the same year he took up the post of Principal Conductor of the Musikkollegium Winterthur, Switzerland. In August 2007 Jac van Steen was appointed General Music Director of the Dortmund Philharmonic and Opera, a position he held for five seasons. Jac van Steen has built up a large opera repertoire and has worked extensively with renowned opera houses such as Weimar and Dortmund, as well as Opera North and Garsington Opera in the UK and the Volksoper in Vienna. In 2018-19, he made his debut with Oslo Opera with two productions.

His first visit to the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London in 1997 led to immediate return engagements, CD recordings and his Proms debut. In August 2005 he returned to the Proms with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, which also marked the formal start of his appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of that orchestra. In addition to his BBC engagements, he performs and records with orchestras and ensembles throughout the UK, including the London Sinfonietta, Royal Scottish Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, CBSO Birmingham, CBSO Youth Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic London, Philharmonia London, BBC Philharmonic Manchester and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He is a regular guest conductor with the finest orchestras in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany, making his debut in Japan in 2017 with the New Japan Philharmonic, and more recently with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra with Benoit's 'The War' (2022), and with the Turku Philharmonic Orhestra in Finland, conducting the world premiere of Sebastian Fagerlund's new composition 'Laterna' (2023), and making a highly successful debut with the Dutch Reisopera with Korngold's 'The Miracle of Heliane' (2023).
He is currently Honorary Guest Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra (Belfast) and the Prague Symphony Orchestra (Czech Republic).

In addition to his work as a conductor, Jac van Steen teaches conducting at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Working with young musicians and students is very important to him and he is one of the initiators of the 'National Masters' of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, an initiative which offers a selected group of young conducting students the opportunity to work with various professional Dutch orchestras as part of their training. Orchestras such as the Hague Philharmonic, the Netherlands Philharmonic and several of the provincial orchestras have joined and offer these master students the opportunity to prepare and work with them. He has also worked frequently with the Chetham School of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and, more recently, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, both in London, and Cambridge University. In the summer of 2011, Jac van Steen took part in the ECYO (European Community Youth Orchestra) summer tour, conducting concerts in Austria and at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and has conducted the CBSO Birmingham Youth Orchestra on several occasions. In May-July 2018 he conducted the Jette Parker Young Artists Showcase organised by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London.