The Netherlands Theatre Orchestra specializes in designing individual programmes for commercial and non-commercial businesses. This also includes accompanying individual artists and theatre projects and producing its own productions and concerts.
The orchestra has performed in a wide range of productions, including ‘Cinema Musica’ in which the orchestra accompanied French silent movies in the Amsterdam Tuschinsky Theatre and the musical, ‘De Tijd-affaire’ in the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht for the centenary of the Rabobank, playing to five thousand people a night for a month.
It is a tribute to the orchestra’s flexibility and enthusiasm, that it was they who arranged the Dutch debut of the international baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky (BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in 1989) with a sell-out performance in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, where the orchestra plays regularly. Their New Year Concerts for De Amersfoortse Verzekeringen (Insurances) in the Recital Hall have become an annual tradition. The orchestra also produced a concert of opera arias and musical hits in the Main Hall for the famous Dutch musical celebrity, Danny de Munk, with opera singer Gail Gilmore and pop star, Laura Vlasblom. In recent years they have produced concerts with such artists as Lynne Dawson, HK Gruber, Johnny Logan, Trijntje Oosterhuis and Mathilde Santing.
Contact:
Nederlands Theater Orkest
p/a Margot Hoiting Management
Marco Polostraat 15-3
1057 WB Amsterdam
+31(0) 20 685 047 73
m.hoiting@planet.nl
Jules van Hessen
Conductor Jules van Hessen graduated in 1984 at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. His teachers were among others, Edward Downes, Lionel Friend, Peter Eötvös, Karl Oesterreicher and Gennadi Rozdezvensky. In the 1980’s and 1990’s he won several international conducting prizes, including the Silver Flower at the San Remo International Competition, the Second Prize and the Orchestra Prize in the Malko Competition in Copenhagen and the laureate prize in the Igor Stravinsky Conducting Competition in Austria. He was also chosen to conduct the final gala concerts at the Dutch (NOS) International Conductors Course. These led to numerous invitations to conduct orchestras both nationally and internationally. In 1991 he was the first Dutch conductor to be invited to the Peoples’ Republic of China to conduct two of their major symphony orchestras.
Jules van Hessen has worked with orchestras and opera houses in Italy, France, Denmark, Belgium, England (BBC Philharmonic), Germany, Austria, USA, China and Mexico and with such artists as Frank Peter Zimmerman, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Pepe Romero, Nelson Freire and Giora Feidman. He has made several recordings, including recently the critically acclaimed recording of the works of the Danish composer, Bent Sörensen. In the Netherlands he has conducted most of the professional orchestras including the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Residentie Orchestra (The Hague Philharmonic).
Jules van Hessen also has a wide experience in conducting Jewish Music. He was Musical Director of the Dutch celebrations of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the State of Israel and has recorded a CD featuring the cantorial repertoire.
Jules van Hessen is not only known for his musical talents and inventive programming, but also for his lecturing and presentational skills and is a frequent guest on the business lecture circuit. As of next season Jules van Hessen will be the presenter of the Dutch Radio 4 music programme, Discotabel.
He has been the Artistic Director of the highly successful Netherlands Theatre Orchestra since its foundation in 1987.