Curriculum

About | Curriculum

Born in 1952 in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands

Artistic Leader of The Netherlands Bach Society

[1982 until 2018]
Conductor and programmer of more than 250 productions including the annual performance of Bach’s Matthäus Passion in Naarden (The Netherlands). Each year, more than 12,0000 people attend the traditional performance of Bach’s Passion in this small fortified town.
Many of the concerts of the Netherlands Bach Society were recorded for radio and/or television. Jos van Veldhoven was always attentive to the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, including reconstructions of his lost Markus Passion and Köthener Trauermusik. Many concerts featured Dutch music from the 17th and 18th centuries, including contemporary premieres with music by Buns, Hacquart, Geertsom, Padbrué and Verrijt. Much attention was also given to 17th century repertoire from Germany, France, England, Spain and Italy including many first performances of dialogues by Charpentier, Carissimi, Pfleger, Grossi, Cozzolani, and Della Ciaia, among others.

Concert tours to Belgium, England, Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Japan, and the United States

Concerts in Japan
2008: concerts in Nishinomiya, Atsugi, Nagakute, Tokyo (Bach, Johannes Passion)
2011: concerts in Nagakute, Sapporo, Tokyo, Nishinomiya (Bach, Mass in b)

Concerts in the United States:
2004: concerts (Kuhnau, Buxtehude, Bach) in: Atlanta (Spivey Hall), Boston (Church of the Immaculate Conception), New York (Society for Ethical Culture), Miami (Coral Gables Congregational Church), Chicago (Fourth Presbyterian Church), Seattle (Town Hall), Berkeley (First Congregational Church).
2007: concerts (Bach, Mass in b) in New York (Metropolitan Museum), Ann Arbor, Seattle, Berkeley, Richmond, Tanglewood (Ozawa Hall)

Festivals

Participation in a large number of national and international festivals including: Festival of Early Music Utrecht, Festival of Flanders, International Organ Festival Haarlem, Festival d’Art Sacré, International Choir Festival, Bath International Music Festival, Dollart Festival, Internasjonale Kirkefestspill, Nordic Baroque Music Festival, Festival des Cathédrales de Picardie

CD recordings

CD series for Channel Classics with major works for choir and orchestra: Bach (St. Matthew Passion), Bach (St. John Passion), Bach (Mass in b minor), Bach (Christmas Oratorio), Mozart (Requiem), Buxtehude (Membra Jesu Nostri), Handel (Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate).

CD series for Channel Classics with adventurous repertoire from the 17th century for smaller ensembles: Saints and Sinners, Angels and Shepherds, Love and Lament, Death and Devotion, Beloved & Beautiful, Music for the Peace of Utrecht.

You can find and buy CD recordings with Jos van Veldhoven as conductor on the website of Outhere Music

All of Bach

Jos van Veldhoven was initiator of the global internet project All of Bach.
All of Bach is a project of the Netherlands Bach Society with the the aim of recording all of Bach’s works, performed at special locations with great attention to image and sound, and sharing them online free of charge. More than 500,000 people now have subscriptions and more than 140.000,000 fans have watched and listened to the hundreds of recordings of Bach.

Oregon Bach Festival

2025-2027: appointment as Artistic Partner
2023: guest conductor (Bach, Magnificat)
2024: guest conductor (Mozart, Great Mass in c)
2025: Beethovens first Akademie, Bach Mass in b
2026: Haydn, Die Schöpfung

Various concerts and operas

1976-present: founder and artistic director of the Utrecht Baroque Consort
Jos van Veldhoven conducted more than a hundred productions including a large number of Dutch and world premières of operas and oratorios. A selection:
Johann Mattheson, Cleopatra
Johann Mattheson, Das Lied des Lammes
Reinhard Keiser, Octavia
Johann Wolfgang Franck, Die drey Töchter Cecrops
Antonio Maria Bononcini, Griselda
Georg Philipp Telemann, Der Tod Jesu
Carl Heinrich Graun, Der Tod Jesu
Georg Philipp Telemann, Don Quichotte auf der Hochzeit des Camacho
Georg Philipp Telemann, Die gekreuzigte Liebe
Antonio Lotti, Alessandro Severo
Giovanni Bononcini, Il trionfo di Camilla
Giovanni Bononcini, Polifemo
Giovanni Bononcini, San Nicola di Bari
Giovanni Bononcini, Il primo omicidio)
Marc’Antonio Ziani, Il sacrifizio d’Isacco
Leonardo Leo, La morte di Abele

Series of staged oratorios by George Frederic Handel
at the Oper Bonn: Saul (2001), Belshazzar (2003), Jephtha (2005)
at the Theater Essen: Semele (2008)
at the Theater Chemnitz: Alcina (2009)

1999 (JVC) Tokyo,Osaka (Handel, Messiah)
2005 (JVC) Tokyo (Handel, Messiah)
2005 (JVC) Osaka (Bach, Weihnachts Oratorium)
2018 (JVC) Tokyo (Handel, Messiah)
2018 (JVC) Osaka (Bach, Weihnachts Oratorium)

Holland Festival 2014: Oidipus by Calliope Tsoupaki(world première)
mis en enspace by Pierre Audi

Guest conductor

Stavanger Symphony Orchestra
Gächinger Cantorey
Noord Nederlands Orkest
PhilZuid
Phion
North Holland Philharmonic Orchestra
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
Netherlands Radio Choir
Netherlands Chamber Choir
Opera South
Cologne Chamber Orchestra
Sinfonie Orchester Wuppertal
Beethoven Orchestra Bonn
Essen Philharmonic Orchestra
Sächsischen Sinfonieorchesters Chemnitz
Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie

Collegium Musicum Riga, New York Collegium, Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Oratorio Society, Telemann Chamber Orchestra, Quodlibet Choir Osaka, Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, Utrecht Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Consort, Chamber Choir of the BRT, Ricercar Consort, Exicon Twente, Groningse Bachvereniging, Utrecht Student Choir and Orchestra, Utrecht Student Cantorij, Chamber Choir Coqu, Concensus Vocale Twente, RO theater Rotterdam, Les Vents Romantiques, Lutheran Bach Ensemble, MUSA, Mozart Academia Torino, Margaretha Consort

2023-2027: Annual performances with the “Jos van Veldhoven Choir” that was formed specifically for a series of concerts in Tokyo.
2023: Joseph Haydn Schöpfung
2024: Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Elias
2025: Johannes Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem
2026: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Great Mass in c minor KV 427
2027: Antonin Dvorak, Stabat Mater and Poulenc Gloria

Teaching

1985-2018: professor of choral conducting at the Conservatory of Amsterdam
1987-2018: professor of choral conducting at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague
1987-1989 artistic director of the Sweelinck Conservatory of Amsterdam
1988-2023 Masterclasses Kurt Thomas Course (summer course for choral conductors)
1992-2001 course leader Kurt Thomas Course (summer course for choral conductors)
1996-1999 guest conductor at Bach projects (Johannes Passion and Matthäus Passion) of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Lyon and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris
2001-2004 workshops Foundation Hoorn Early Music Now
2001-2002 workshops Collegium Ad Mosam
2002-2003 workshops Psalms Festival Leiden

Awards

2005 Classical Music Prize of the Association of Theatre and Concert Hall Directors in the category Orchestra or Large Ensemble for the Orpheus project of the Netherlands Bach Society in the 2004-2005 season
2006 Diapason d’or for the CD of Buxtehude’s “Membra Jesu Nostri”
2007 Appointed Knight by Queen Beatrix in the Order of the Dutch Lion for his pioneering work within Early Music
2008 Bearer of the Golden Bach Pin of the Bach Committee Aardenburg
2019 Medal of Saint Maarten of the city of Utrecht for his cultural merit

Education

1979-1983 Choral conducting at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague
1977-1983 Orchestra conducting at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague
1973-1980 Musicology at the Utrecht University
1971-1973 Medicine at the Utrecht University
1964-1971 Gymnasium “Beekvliet” in St. Michielsgestel

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