Edo de Waart
Conductor Edo de Waart began his career in the Netherlands but has led orchestras and operatic productions on several continents. He has held several major positions in the U.S., where he received his first big break.
Edo de Waart was born in Amsterdam on June 1, 1941. He grew up in a musical family and took up the oboe as a youth, studying at the Sweelinck Conservatory. He also took conducting and piano courses there, but he focused on the oboe at first, holding associate principal positions with the Amsterdam Philharmonic (now the Netherlands Philharmonic) and the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. Taking conducting lessons on the side with Franco Ferrara in Hilversum, de Waart made his conducting debut with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in 1964. That year, he won the Dimitri Mitropoulos Conducting Competition in New York, resulting in a one-year engagement as assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic.
He founded the Netherlands Wind Ensemble in 1967, and that year, he became co-music director (later music director) of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, remaining with that orchestra until 1979. In 1977, he became music director of the San Francisco Symphony. One of de Waart's early digital recordings came with that orchestra in 1984, with an ECM performance of John Adams' Harmonium. He continued to champion Adams' music through the 1980s and '90s. In San Francisco, he also mounted a complete performance of Wagner's Ring Cycle operas. From 1986 to 1995, de Waart served as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra.
Back in the Netherlands, de Waart was music director of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic from 1989 to 2004. He served as music director of the Sydney Symphony in Australia from 2004 to 2014, departing partly because he was dissatisfied with the acoustics of the Sydney Opera House. He moved to the Hong Kong Symphony Orchestra, where he served as chief conductor and artistic director from 2004 to 2012. In 2009, de Waart returned to the U.S., settling in the Milwaukee area with his wife, Rebecca Dopp, and becoming chief conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. His tenure there concluded in 2017, but he remains active with the orchestra as conductor laureate.
He also served as chief conductor of deFilharmonie (now the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra) from 2011 to 2016. After several guest appearances, de Waart became the first principal guest conductor of the San Diego Symphony in 2019; he continued to hold that position as of the mid-2020s when he was in his early eighties. Encompassing work with many of the orchestras he has led, de Waart has amassed a vast and varied recording catalog that includes 18th and 19th century orchestral repertory, opera, new works, unusual national traditions (he made several recordings of works by composer Carl Vine with the Sydney Symphony), and Dutch works, such as the ones by Reinbert de Leeuw he recorded with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic on a 2023 release on the Challenge Classics label. By that time, his catalog comprised more than 80 recordings.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Mozart: Divertimenti II (Netherlands Wind Ensemble: Complete Philips Recordings, Vol. 2)
Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Edo de Waart
Klassiek - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 jan. 1970
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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R. Strauss: Symphony for Wind Instruments 'The Happy Workshop'; Serenade for Wind Instruments (Netherlands Wind Ensemble: Complete Philips Recordings, Vol. 14)
Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Edo de Waart
Klassiek - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 jan. 1971
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Overtures
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Edo de Waart
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1982
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Divertimenti & Serenades, Vol. 3 (Complete Mozart Edition)
Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Edo de Waart
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
R.Straus - Orchestral Works
Minnesota Orchestra, Edo de Waart
Klassiek - Released by Parlophone UK on 5 mei 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (Piano & Orchestral)
Misha Dichter, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Edo de Waart
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 24 jun. 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Divertimenti III (Netherlands Wind Ensemble: Complete Philips Recordings, Vol. 3)
Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Edo de Waart
Klassiek - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 jan. 1970
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gershwin: I Got Rhythm/Piano Concerto in F/Rhapsody No.2, etc.
Werner Haas, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte‐Carlo, Edo de Waart, Eliahu Inbal
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schoenberg: Pelleas Und Melisande
Edo de Waart, Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by ABC Classic on 5 aug. 2016
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No. 1
Minnesota Orchestra, Edo de Waart
Klassiek - Released by Parlophone UK on 1 jan. 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Reich: Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards
San Francisco Symphony, Edo de Waart
Klassiek - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 23 jun. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Shéhérazade (Elly Ameling – The Philips Recitals, Vol. 21)
Elly Ameling, San Francisco Symphony, Edo de Waart
Klassiek - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 jan. 1982
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A. Dvorak: Symphony No. 8
Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Edo de Waart
Klassiek - Released by Royal Flemish Philharmonic on 16 mei 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No.4
Margaret Price, San Francisco Symphony, Edo de Waart
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1982
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Opera & Concert Arias (Elly Ameling – The Philips Recitals, Vol. 5)
Elly Ameling, English Chamber Orchestra, Edo de Waart
Klassiek - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 jan. 1973
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monumentum
Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Edo de Waart
Klassiek - Released by Donemus Composers' Voice on 1 jan. 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert on Stage (Elly Ameling – The Philips Recitals, Vol. 8)
Elly Ameling, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Edo de Waart
Klassiek - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 jan. 1976
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
75th Anniversary Collection – a Recording Heritage, Vol. 5
Edo de Waart, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by ABC Classic on 1 jan. 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo