Metropole Orkest

Since its establishment in 1945 by the Dutch Radio Foundation with Dolf van der Linden at the podium, the Metropole Orchestra—also known as Metropole Orkest—has earned worldwide acclaim through performances and recordings spanning jazz, pop, electronic, classical, world, and avant-garde realms, drawing its players from those same spheres and beyond. As the planet's longest-running multi-genre ensemble, it maintains a discography exceeding one hundred albums and can field anything from compact seventeen-piece units to near-hundred-member forces. Beyond its own catalog, the group has shared stages and studios with an array of major figures such as Ella Fitzgerald, Tori Amos, Elvis Costello, Steve Vai, Snarky Puppy, and the progressive metal act Within Temptation. Long favored for motion-picture scoring duties, the orchestra has supplied original music to numerous films produced in both Europe and North America.

Following van der Linden's departure after thirty-five years in 1980, Rogier van Otterloo assumed leadership until his death in 1988, at which point artistic director Dick Bakker took the reins until Vince Mendoza became principal conductor and arranger in 2005. Mendoza continued until 2013, when Jules Buckley—already a frequent guest since 2008—succeeded him. One year later the ensemble pivoted toward sustained partnerships with global vocalists, beginning with the projects Laura Mvula with Metropole Orkest and Live in Holland with Asha Bhosle. Subsequent collaborations included electronic artist Jameszoo on the 2017 live recording Melkweg, Argentine pianist and composer Pablo Ziegler on Amsterdam Meets New Tango that same year, guitarist and singer Raul Midon for the 2018 album If You Really Want, and the extreme-music festival Roadburn debut in 2019 alongside Triptykon for the newly commissioned Requiem.

The orchestra's early decades cemented its status within European jazz circles, where it accompanied Tony Bennett, Shirley Bassey, and Natalie Cole. Its profile rose further under later leadership with widely praised releases such as the 2008 Jim Beard collaboration Revolutions and the 2010 trilogy comprising El Viento: The Garcia Lorca Project, Ivan Lins & the Metropole Orchestra, and Morricone: The Maestro, The Music, And the Orchestra. Even while issuing twenty albums between 2008 and 2011, the ensemble faced the threat of lost government support, a crisis resolved only when funding was secured through 2017. Among the acclaimed recordings that followed were Edu Lobo & Metropole Orkest, Perfect Vision: The Esquivel Sound, and Sylva with Snarky Puppy. The 2017 Ziegler concert album Amsterdam Meets New Tango earned international critical praise and extensive European and Asian airplay.

Ahead of the May 2018 parliamentary discussion on arts subsidies, the orchestra disclosed that prior budget reductions had halved its workload, forcing many musicians to juggle erratic schedules with additional employment. Its sole 2019 release was the retrospective Melkweg with Jameszoo (Mitchel van Dinther), captured at the renowned venue of the same name. The Roadburn-commissioned Requiem with Triptykon—realizing Celtic Frost's unfinished work of that title, composed by founding guitarist Tom Gabriel Warrior, who formed the band in 1986—appeared on Century Media in spring 2020, while a limited-edition double-vinyl edition of Melkweg was offered via Bandcamp the same year.