Jan Willem de Vriend

Jan Willem de Vriend maintains equal prominence as an authority on historically informed performance and as a leader of present-day symphonic ensembles. He established the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, a distinguished early-music ensemble, and served as its director for many years.

Born in Leiden on July 31, 1962, de Vriend trained at the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. While still enrolled as a student he conducted productions of Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus and Kurt Weill’s Der Silbersee. In 1982 he founded the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, appearing as its violinist and remaining artistic head until 2015. The group concentrated on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century repertory, mounting revivals of seldom-heard operas by Rameau, Haydn, and Florian Gassmann. Through extensive touring and a steady stream of recordings de Vriend earned recognition as one of the Netherlands’ foremost specialists in period performance. His commitment to historically informed practices also encompassed the Romantic era; between 2006 and 2017, as conductor of the Orkest van het Oosten (subsequently renamed the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra), he presented works extending to Mahler’s symphonies on period instruments and with appropriate ensemble sonorities.

In the mid-2010s de Vriend stepped down from the Combattimento Consort to concentrate exclusively on conducting. He held the post of chief conductor with the Residentie Orkest in The Hague from 2015 to 2019 and, beginning the same year, assumed the role of principal guest conductor with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. In 2018 he added a comparable position with the Orchestre National de Lille in France; he has likewise served as principal guest conductor of the Stuttgart Philharmonic. Additional engagements have included frequent appearances with leading Dutch orchestras—the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Limburg Symphony, and the Brabant Orchestra—as well as with foreign ensembles such as the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester in Hamburg, the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, and the SWR Symphonieorchester in Stuttgart.

De Vriend’s extensive discography, issued chiefly with the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam and the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, includes a complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies performed in period style. His recordings have appeared on Challenge Classics, Channel Classics, and NM Classics, among other labels. In 2019, with the Residentie Orkest, he launched a full cycle of Schubert’s symphonies.