- Willem van Otterloo
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Willem van Otterloo 
Background information Birth name Jan Willem van Otterloo Born December 27, 1907
Winterswijk, NetherlandsDied July 27, 1978 (aged 70)
Melbourne, AustraliaGenres Classical Occupations Conductor, pedagogue Associated acts Residentie Orchestra
Sydney SymphonyJan Willem van Otterloo (December 27, 1907 – July 27, 1978) was a Dutch conductor, cellist and composer.
Contents
Biography
Van Otterloo was born in Winterswijk, Gelderland, in the Netherlands, the son of William Frederik van Otterloo, a railway inspector, and his wife Anna Catharina Enderlé. He qualified to study medicine at Utrecht University but switched to studying cello and composition at the Amsterdam Conservatoire. While playing as a cellist in the Utrecht Stedelijk Orkest, he won a composition prize from the Concertgebouw Orchestra for his Suite No. 3, which he presented in his 1932 conducting debut, also with that orchestra. He held posts with the Utrecht Stedelijk Orkest, before being appointed chief conductor of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague (1949–1973).
He spent 11 years in Australia. From 1967 to 1970 he was chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and in 1971 he was appointed chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, where he remained until 1978.
Particularly prized for his performances of newer music, he made recordings, mostly for Philips Records, with Residentie Orkest, Concertgebouworkest, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre Lamoureux and the Sydney Symphony.
He died in East St Kilda, Melbourne in 1978 from injuries suffered in an automobile accident. This occurred not long after his farewell performance with the Sydney Symphony. His body was flown to The Hague for cremation.
His notable students include Graham George and Miroslav Miletić.
Personal life
Van Otterloo was married and divorced four times in the Netherlands.[1] He married Elisabeth ter Hoeve on August 1, 1935 (divorce 1938). On April 22, 1941 he married Anette Jacoba Adriana Heukers, with whom in December of that year he had a son, Rogier van Otterloo (1941–1988) [1], who would become a well-known conductor in the Netherlands as well. He and Anette divorced in April 1943, but remarried April 28, 1944. They would have another son and two daughters, but divorced again on September 20, 1954. Ten days later he married Susanne Maria Anna Wildmann with whom he had another daughter. A month after his fourth divorce, he married Carola Gertie Ludewig (born 1945) on 12 August 1970 in Australia.
Compositions
- Suite (1938)
- Symphoniëtta for 16 Wind Instruments (1943)
- Serenade (1944)
Discography
- Willem Van Otterloo and Residentie Orkest: The Original Recordings 1950-1960. 13 CDs. Challenge Classics, CC 72142
References
- ^ http://www.inghist.nl/Instituut/Onderzoek/Projecten/BWN/lemmata/bwn2/otterloo Biography at the Institute for Dutch History (Dutch)
External links
- Willem van Otterloo at the Australian Dictionary of Biography
Preceded by
Frits SchuurmanPrincipal Conductor, Residentie Orkest
1949–1973Succeeded by
Jean MartinonEugene Goossens (1947) · Nikolai Malko (1957) · Dean Dixon (1964) · Moshe Atzmon (1967) · Willem van Otterloo (1971) · Louis Frémaux (1979) · Charles Mackerras (1982) · Zdeněk Mácal (1986) · Stuart Challender (1987) · Edo de Waart (1993) · Gianluigi Gelmetti (2004) · Vladimir Ashkenazy (2009)
Alberto Zelman (1906) • Fritz Hart (1927) • Bernard Heinze (1932) • Alceo Galliera (1950) • Juan José Castro (1952) • Walter Susskind (1953) • Kurt Wöss (1956) • Georges Tzipine (1960) • Willem van Otterloo (1967) • Fritz Rieger (1971) • Hiroyuki Iwaki (1974) • Markus Stenz (1998) • Oleg Caetani (2005) • Tadaaki Otaka (2009)
Categories:- 1907 births
- 1978 deaths
- People from Winterswijk
- Road accident deaths in Australia
- Australian people of Dutch descent
- Dutch conductors (music)
- Accidental deaths in Victoria (Australia)
- Dutch cellists
- Dutch composers
- Dutch composer stubs
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