Yakov Kreizberg (1959 - 2011)
One of the most interesting and exciting conductors of his generation, Yakov Kreizberg conducted most of the major orchestras throughout Europe, North America and Asia. At the time of his death he held the posts of Artistic and Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, and Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Netherlands Philharmonic and Netherlands Chamber orchestras.

He had previously held the posts of Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Wiener Symphoniker and Generalmusikdirektor of the Komische Oper Berlin. In Europe, Yakov Kreizberg worked with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Münchner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Staatskapelle Dresden, Gewandhausorchester, Orchestre National de France and WDR Sinfonieorchester. In the UK he worked with the London Symphony, BBC Symphony, London Philharmonic and the Philharmonia orchestras. He was a frequent guest at London's BBC Proms and last appeared there in 2008 with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.

In North America Yakov Kreizberg conducted, amongst others, the Philadelphia, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony and Minnesota orchestras, as well as the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics. In Asia he worked with orchestras such as the NHK and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony. Equally at home in the opera house he conducted productions at the Chicago Lyric Opera, Canadian Opera, English National Opera, Bregenz Festival, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, De Nederlandse Opera and the Royal Opera House.
Yakov Kreizberg encouraged and dedicated time to inspiring youth in music and for a number of years he was Music Director of the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra. In October 2007 he was bestowed the ‘Ehrenkreuz’ by the Austrian President in recognition of his achievement in the Arts. A prolific recording artist, he leaves behind an extensive and award-winning discography. His most recent recordings were recorded for the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo’s new label – OPMC Classics – launched in autumn 2010 with a triple CD of Stravinsky’s major ballets. This was followed by a Ravel and Debussy compilation in 2011. His many and much admired recordings for PentaTone included symphonies by Shostakovich (Nos. 5 and 9), Dvořák (Nos. 5 - 9), Schmidt (No. 4 – a piece with which he was closely associated) and a number of discs in collaboration Julia Fischer. He also recorded for Decca, Orfeo and Oehms Classics.

Born in St Petersburg, Yakov Kreizberg studied conducting privately with the legendary Ilya A. Musin, before emigrating to the United States in 1976. There he was awarded conducting fellowships at Tanglewood with Bernstein, Ozawa and Leinsdorf, and at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute with Michael Tilson Thomas. In 1986 he won first prize in the Leopold Stokowski Conducting Competition in New York.

Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Amsterdam
It could have been a slogan from a tv-commercial: "the most versatile orchestra in the country", but in the case of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Amsterdam this title is entirely justified. No other orchestra in the Netherlands covers such a broad range of repertoire like the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Amsterdam does. With 130 musicians the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra is the largest orchestral organization in the Netherlands. Founded in 1986 as a merger of the Amsterdam Philharmonic, the Utrecht Symphony and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra continues the tradition of its predecessors in offering an attractive combination of accessible concert programs, in which works from the core repertoire are combined with contemporary music. The orchestra has a tradition in performing the music of Dutch composers and has commissioned and premiered works by Louis Andriessen, Theo Loevendie, Willem Jeths, Jeff Hamburg, Hans Kox, Hans Koolmees and Otto Ketting.

Next to these concerts, the majority of which take place in the world- famous acoustics of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Amsterdam accompanies most of the performances of Netherlands Opera in the Amsterdam Muziektheater. From the start Hartmut Haenchen has been chief conductor with the orchestra. His performances of Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen and of the complete Mahler symphonies met with high critical acclaim, both nationally and internationally. Many of his performances were issued on CD, e.g. on the orchestra’s own label. On the young and enterprising Dutch label Pentatone a recording on super-audio (SACD) format of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony appeared.

Other conductors that have performed with the orchestra are: Rudolph Barshai, Andrew Litton, Markus Stenz, Dmitri Kitaenko, Emmanuel Krivine, Sir Yehudi Menuhin and Hans Vonk. The orchestra worked with esteemed soloists like Frank Peter Zimmerman, Leonidas Kavakos, Vadim Repin, Maxim Vengerov, Bella Davidovich, Leif Ove Andsnes, Maria Joao Pires, Stephen Hough, Stephen Kovacevich, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Radu Lupu, Heinrich Schiff, Natalia Gutman, Frans Helmersson, Mischa Maisky and Antonio Menesses. In September 2003 Hartmut Haenchen will be succeeded by the dynamic Russian born American conductor Yakov Kreizberg. With Kreizberg the orchestra will broaden its repertoire, raise its international profile and start on a prestigious recording scheme. Following successful concerts in Amsterdam Kreizberg and the orchestra already recorded Franz Schmidt’s Fourth Symphony (again for Pentatone on SACD) and in the coming seasons milestones of the repertoire will be recorded as well as compositions featured on the programmes of the orchestra’s international tours.

Enthusiasm and diversity: these are the keywords to describe the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. A small string Divertimento by Mozart, the vast structure of a Wagner opera, or a new work by Peteris Vasks: the Netherlands Philharmonic plays it all, and together with our new chief conductorYakov Kreizberg and guest artists we try to bring our enthusiasm for the music to the audience. An audience that consists for the largest part of real music lovers, for whom an evening at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw or the Muziektheater is the ultimate experience.