Edo de Waart

Infobox musical artist
Name = Edo de Waart

---

Background = classical_ensemble
Born = birth date and age|1941|06|01
flagicon|NLD Amsterdam, Netherlands
Instrument = Oboe, piano
Genre = Classical
Occupation = Conductor, pedagogue
Years_active = 1963-present
Associated_acts = Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
Minnesota Orchestra
De Nederlandse Opera
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
San Francisco Symphony
Santa Fe Opera
Sydney Symphony
URL =

Edo de Waart (born 1 June 1941) is a Dutch conductor of symphony orchestras and opera . He is the chief conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Santa Fe Opera and music director designate of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Biography

De Waart was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands where he studied oboe, piano and conducting at the Sweelinck Conservatory, graduating in 1962. The following year, he was appointed associate principal oboe of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Orchestral conducting

In 1964, at the age of 23, he won the Dimitri Mitropoulos Conducting Competition in New York. As part of his prize, he served for one year as assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic. On his return to the Netherlands, he was appointed assistant conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Bernard Haitink.

In 1967, he was appointed conductor of both the Netherlands Wind Ensemble and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and was the latter's music director from 1973 to 1979.

De Waart made his début at the San Francisco Symphony in 1975; a year later he became principal guest conductor, and from 1977 to 1985 he was its music director.

From 1986 to 1995, he was chief conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra.

In 1989, de Waart returned to the Netherlands where he was appointed music director of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. He resigned from the post in 2004 and now he is the orchestra's conductor laureate.

De Waart became chief conductor and artistic adviser of the Sydney Symphony in 1995. In early 1999, after two successful terms with the orchestra, including taking it on a very well-received tour of the United States, he announced he would be leaving by the end of the year. The orchestra's management was fully engaged in the process of finding his replacement, when he realised he loved the job so much that he decided to stay on longer. He left the post in 2004. While in Sydney, he made no secret of his dislike of the acoustics of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, the orchestra's home. He said ".. if there is no clear intention to do something to improve the hall, then we really seriously have to look at another venue". ["Room to Develop", Phil Carrick, ABC Radio 24 Hours, July 1999]

That year he became artistic director and chief conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. In November 2007, de Waart and the Hong Kong Philharmonic agreed on a contract extension of his tenure to 2012. [cite news | url=http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/7369.html | title=Edo de Waart Extends Hong Kong Phil Contract to 2012 | publisher="Playbill Arts" | author=Matthew Westphal | date=2007-11-16 | accessdate=2007-11-17]

On 3 January 2008, de Waart was named music director designate of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He is scheduled to succeed Andreas Delfs as the orchestra's music director in September 2009. [cite news | url=http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=702918 | title=Well-traveled leader to take baton at MSO | work=Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | author=Tom Strini | date=2008-01-02 | accessdate=2008-01-03]

In March 2008, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra announced that de Waart is scheduled to become an Artistic Partner with the orchestra in the 2010-2011 season. [cite press release | url=http://www.thespco.org/load_screen.asp?screen=pr_03_19_08c_news | title=SPCO Announces New Artistic Partner Edo de Waart | publisher=Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra | date=19 March 2008 | accessdate=2008-06-29] De Waart has been a guest conductor with the major orchestras throughout the world including the Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Opera

De Waart has also been a frequent conductor of opera. De Waart made his first conducting appearance at the Santa Fe Opera (SFO) in 1971, in a production of " The Flying Dutchman".

He debuted at the Houston Grand Opera in 1975, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1976, and the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in 1979. From 1970, he conducted the DNO frequently. In 1980, he directed a "Ring" cycle at the San Francisco Opera.

In March 2002, de Waart announced his departure in 2004 as chief conductor of the Netherlands Opera (DNO), a position he filled since 1999. In giving his reason for leaving, de Waart mentioned his desire to spend time with his two small children. However, de Waart also mentioned in an interview with the newspaper "Trouw" his disagreement with the conceptual staging of "Lohengrin " by DNO director Pierre Audi and the planned "Madame Butterfly" of Robert Wilson. De Waart said he missed "humanity" and "emotion in the direction."

In July 2007, the Santa Fe Opera named de Waart their chief conductor, effective 1 October 2007. [cite news | url=http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/65320.html | title=Dutch maestro takes over as chief conductor | work=The New Mexican | author=Craig Smith | date=2007-07-24 | accessdate=2007-07-25] [cite news | url=http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/6832.html | title=Santa Fe Opera Names Edo de Waart Chief Conductor | work=Playbill Arts | author=Matthew Westphal | date=2007-07-24 | accessdate=2007-07-25]

In recent seasons, he has conducted a new production of "Der Rosenkavalier" for Opera de Bastille, "The magic Flute" and "Figaro" for the Metropolitan Opera and "Katya Kabanová", "Werther", "Peter Grimes", "The Makropulos Affair", "Madama Butterfly", "Fidelio", "Les Troyens" in Amsterdam. Other recent productions include "Boris Godunov" for Geneva Opera, "Figaro" for the Salzburg Festival and "Beatrice et Benedict" for Santa Fe Opera. In Sydney, he led concert performances of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle, a project which started in 1995 and culminated in performances of "Götterdämmerung" as part of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Arts Festival. He also conducted opera-in-concert performances of Richard Strauss' "Salome" and "Elektra" with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, to critical acclaim.

Repertoire

An avid promoter of contemporary music, de Waart led premieres of works by John Adams, whose opera "Nixon in China" he has recorded; Steve Reich, whose "Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards" he has recorded; and others in San Francisco.

Recordings

Edo de Waart's recording catalogue is extensive, encompassing recordings with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony.

Personal life

De Waart maintains two residences, an apartment in Hong Kong and a house in Middleton, Wisconsin, which is the hometown of his wife, mezzo-soprano Rebecca Dopp, whom he married in 1999. [cite news | url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/06/07/1022982767330.html | title=Opus in the making keeps Edo away from the orchestra | publisher="Sydney Morning Herald" | author=Peter Fray | date=2002-06-08 | accessdate=2007-08-30] Their home in Wisconsin is to accommodate the asthma of their 4-year old son. [cite news | url=http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/6434.html | title=Edo de Waart, Music Director of Hong Kong Philharmonic, Moves Family From City Due to Pollution | publisher="Playbill Arts" | author=Vivien Schweitzer | date=2007-05-04 | accessdate=2007-08-30]

References

External links

*cite web | url=http://www.harrisonparrott.com/artists/Edo_de_Waart.asp | title=Edo de Waart, Biography| publisher=HarrisonParrott Agency | accessdate=
*allmusic|41:20007