Het Residentie Orkest (literal translation, ''The Residence Orchestra''; known also in English as ''Residentie Orkest The Hague'') is a Dutch orchestra based in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

. The orchestra is currently resident at the Amare performing arts centre in The Hague.

History

Henri Viotta founded the orchestra in 1904. Its early home was the ''Gebouw voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen'' (K & W). The orchestra received its first acclaim during the 1911

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic music, Romantic and early Modernism (music), modern eras, he has been descr ...

Festival, in which the composer himself conducted some of his works. The orchestra soon attracted other composers such as

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

Max Reger Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 187311 May 1916) was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, as a musical director at the Leipzig University Church, as a professor a ...

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

, and

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the '' ...

. In 1915, the Residentie Orchestra took over the summertime performances of the Kurzaal Concerts in Scheveningen from the

Orchestre Lamoureux The Orchestre Lamoureux () officially known as the Société des Nouveaux-Concerts and also known as the Concerts Lamoureux) is an orchestral concert society which once gave weekly concerts by its own orchestra, founded in Paris by Charles Lamoureu ...

. The orchestra's second chief conductor was the composer and conductor Peter van Anrooy, from 1917 until his resignation in 1935. Frits Schuurman became the next chief conductor, holding the post through World War II. After the war,

Willem van Otterloo Jan Willem van Otterloo (27 December 190727 July 1978) was a Dutch conductor, cellist and composer. Biography Van Otterloo was born in Winterswijk, Gelderland, in the Netherlands, the son of William Frederik van Otterloo, a railway inspector, ...

led the orchestra as chief conductor from 1949 to 1973. After the K & W was destroyed in a fire in 1964, the orchestra played in various venues around the city without a permanent home. A fund-raising campaign, which included the release of several recordings known as ''"bouw-mee"'' ("build along") recordings, culminated in the construction of a new hall for the orchestra, the Dr. Anton Philipszaal, which was named after Anton Frederik Philips, co-founder of Philips Electronics. The orchestra took up residence in the Dr. Anton Philipszaal in September 1987, in a ceremony where the hall was formally opened in the presence of

Queen Beatrix Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husba ...

. From 2015 to 2021, the orchestra gave concerts at the ''Zuiderstrandtheater'' in

Scheveningen Scheveningen is one of the eight districts of The Hague, Netherlands, as well as a subdistrict (''wijk'') of that city. Scheveningen is a modern seaside resort with a long, sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier, and a lighthouse. The beach is po ...

. Succeeding Van Otterloo as chief conductors were

Jean Martinon Jean Francisque-Étienne Martinon (usually known simply as Jean Martinon (); 10 January 19101 March 1976) was a French conductor and composer. Biography Martinon was born in Lyon, where he began his education, going on to the Conservatoire ...

, Ferdinand Leitner, Hans Vonk, and

Evgeny Svetlanov Yevgeny Fyodorovich Svetlanov (russian: Евгéний Фёдорович Светлáнов; 6 September 1928 – 3 May 2002) was a Russian conductor, composer and a pianist. Life and work Svetlanov was born in Moscow and studied conducting wi ...

Jaap van Zweden Jaap van Zweden (; born 12 December 1960) is a Dutch conductor and violinist. He is currently music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and of the New York Philharmonic, and music director-designate of the Seoul Philharmonic. Bi ...

, chief conductor from 2000 to 2005, now has the title of honorary guest conductor (''ere-gastdirigent'') with the orchestra.

Neeme Järvi Neeme Järvi (; born 7 June 1937) is an Estonian American conductor. Early life Järvi was born in Tallinn. He initially studied music there, and later in Leningrad at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevgeny Mravinsky, and Nikolai Rabinovich ...

was chief conductor from 2005 to 2012, and subsequently held the title of chief conductor emeritus. In April 2013, the orchestra appointed

Richard Egarr Richard Egarr (born 7 August 1963) is a British conductor and keyboard player. Biography Born in Lincoln, Egarr received his early musical training as a choirboy at York Minster and at Chetham's School of Music. He was an organ scholar at Cla ...

as its principal guest conductor (''vaste gastdirigent'') for an initial period of 3 years. In March 2014, the orchestra announced the elimination of the post of chief conductor and the formation of a new conductor hierarchy. In parallel, the orchestra announced the appointment of Jan Willem de Vriend to the post of ''vaste dirigent'' (principal conductor), effective 1 August 2015, for approximately 6 weeks per season with an initial contract of 4 years. In June 2015, the orchestra announced the appointment of Nicholas Collon as co-principal conductor, effective 1 August 2016, for a minimum term of 3 years, with 6 weeks of appearances per season. In June 2017, the orchestra announced Collon's appointment as its sole chief conductor and artistic advisor, effective 1 August 2018, with a minimum of 8 weeks of appearances per season. In parallel, de Vriend is to continue his formal relationship with the orchestra through the summer of 2019. Collon is scheduled to conclude his chief conductorship of the Residentie Orchestra at the close of the 2020–2021 season. The orchestra has undertaken several major tours which included cities such as

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...

, Chicago,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and Berlin. It has performed under guest conductors including

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mon ...

Hans Knappertsbusch Hans Knappertsbusch (12 March 1888 – 25 October 1965) was a German conductor, best known for his performances of the music of Wagner, Bruckner and Richard Strauss. Knappertsbusch followed the traditional route for an aspiring conductor in Ge ...

Carl Schuricht Carl Adolph Schuricht (; 3 July 18807 January 1967) was a German conductor. Life and career Schuricht was born in Danzig (Gdańsk), German Empire; his father's family had been respected organ-builders. His mother, Amanda Wusinowska, a widow so ...

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...

, and

Bruno Walter Bruno Walter (born Bruno Schlesinger, September 15, 1876February 17, 1962) was a German-born conductor, pianist and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French citizen in 1938, and settled in the ...

. The orchestra has commercially recorded works by Dutch composers such as Alphons Diepenbrock and Johannes Verhulst. A selection of recordings made during the fifties at the Amsterdam

Concertgebouw The Royal Concertgebouw ( nl, Koninklijk Concertgebouw, ) is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" translates into English as "concert building". Its superb acoustics place it among the finest concert halls in ...

under the baton of Willem van Otterloo has been issued on CD in 2007. The orchestra made its first appearance at

The Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

in September 2008. In October 2012, the city council of The Hague announced a reduction in the municipal subsidy for the orchestra, from 5.1 million € to 3.5 million €. The orchestra subsequently expressed concerns of consequences to the orchestra such as job losses for a number of the musicians, and diminished representation of larger-scale symphonic works in the orchestra's concert repertoire. In November 2018, Anja Bihlmaier first guest-conducted the orchestra. Based on this appearance, in May 2019, the orchestra announced the appointment of Bihlmaier as its next chief conductor, effective with the 2021–2022 season. She is the first female conductor to be named chief conductor of the orchestra, and the second female conductor to be named chief conductor of a Dutch orchestra. In parallel with the appointment of Bihlmaier, the orchestra simultaneously announced the appointment of

Jun Märkl Jun Märkl (born 11 February 1959 in Munich) is a German conductor. Biography Born to a Japanese pianist mother and a German violinist father, Märkl studied piano and the violin as a youth. Beginning in 1978 at the Musikhochschule Hannover he c ...

as principal guest conductor, alongside Richard Egarr. In September 2021, the orchestra, conducted by Bihlmaier, gave its first performance at the new Amare performing arts centre in The Hague, the new performing venue for the orchestra.

Conductors

Chief Conductors

* Henri Viotta (1904–1917) * Peter van Anrooy (1917–1935) * Frits Schuurman (1938–1949) *

(1949–1973) *

(1974–1976) * Ferdinand Leitner (1976–1980) * Hans Vonk (1980–1992) *

(1993–2000) *

(2000–2005) *

(2005–2012) * Nicholas Collon (2018–2021) * Anja Bihlmaier (2021–present)

Honorary guest conductor

(2005–present)

Principal (guest) conductors

(1930–1939) *

George Szell George Szell (; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is widely considered one of the twentieth century's greatest cond ...

(1937–1939) *

Hiroyuki Iwaki (6 September 193213 June 2006) was a Japanese conductor and percussionist. Biography Iwaki was born in Tokyo in 1932. Shortly after he entered an elementary school, he moved to Kyoto due to his father's transferral. He came to play the xyloph ...

(1969–1974) *

Alain Lombard Alain Lombard (born 4 October 1940, Paris) is a French conductor. Career Lombard attended the Conservatoire de Paris, where his studied violin with Line Talleul and conducting with Gaston Poulet. He subsequently secured an appointment at the ...

(1979–1989) *

Günther Herbig Günther Herbig (born 30 November 1931) is a German conductor. Born in Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia, Herbig studied conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy in Weimar in 1951 (then in East Germany) with Hermann Abendroth. He later was a student ...

(1990–1996) *

Oliver Knussen Stuart Oliver Knussen (12 June 1952 – 8 July 2018) was a British composer and conductor. Early life Oliver Knussen was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father, Stuart Knussen, was principal double bass of the London Symphony Orchestra, and a ...

(1992–1996) * George Pehlivanian (1996–1998) *

(2013–present) * Jan Willem de Vriend (2015–2019) * Nicholas Collon (2016–2018) *

(2021–present)

References

External links

Official orchestra web site

Fugro Corporation 2001 corporate report, which includes background information on Het Residentie Orkest

Wilma Roest, Radio Netherlands Music biography of Peter van Anrooy

{{Authority control Musical groups established in 1904 Dutch orchestras 1904 establishments in the Netherlands