Principal Guest Conductor
Jac van Steen was born in The Netherlands and studied orchestra and choir conducting at the Brabants Conservatory of Music.
Since participating in the BBC Conductors Seminar in 1985, he enjoys a very busy career and conducts the best orchestras in The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Germany, which included holding the post of Music Director and Chief Conductor of the National Ballet of The Netherlands, the orchestras of Bochum and Nürenberg, the Staatskapelle Weimar, The Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra of Dortmund, Musikkollegium Winterthur and Principle Guestconductor at the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Prague Symphony Orchestra. He is also Principal Guestconductor of the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast. He made his debut with Opera North in 2013 as well as with the Volksoper in Vienna. In 2015 he has made a very succesful debut at the Garsington Opera. In 2015-16 Jac van Steen visited the Uk regularly for various engagements with the British orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, the CBSO, Opera North and Ulster Orchestra. In the present season he returned to Opera North with very successful performances of Puccini’s Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica, the Volksoper Vienna with Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane and made his debut in Tokyo with the New Japan Philharmonic with an all-American programme. He will return to Garsington Opera with the production of Debussy, Pelléas and Mélisande.
Jac van Steen has participated in numerous recordings for the BBC, as well as live- broadcasts of his concerts. There are a substantial number of CD recordings of his work with various orchestras.
Besides his activities as conductor, he is dedicated to teaching and is Professor for Conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague. He also regularly works with the Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham’s School of Music (Manchester) as well as the Royal Academy and Royal College of Music (London).
