Jaap Schrצder (Conductor, Violin)

Born: December 31, 1925 - Amsterdam, Holland

The distinguished Dutch violinist (regular and Baroque), conductor, and pedagogue, Jaap Schrצder, studied violin at the Amsterdam Conservatory and in Paris. He also attended classes in musicology at the Sorbonne.

Jaap Schrצder then served as concert-master of the Hilversum Radio Chamber Orchestra, and was a member of the Netherlands String Quartet. In 1975 he founded the Quartetto Esterhazy, which gave performances of music from the Classical era on period instruments. It was dissolved in 1981. He subsequently served as music director and concertmaster of the Academy of Ancient Music in London. Since 1981 he has toured extensively worldwide. In 1982 he was appointed visiting music director of the Smithsonian Chamber Players in Washington, D.C. He also oraganized there the Smith son Quartet. Now he is a faculty member of the School of Music at Yale University. He also teaches at the Universities of Virginia and Maryland, Peabody Conservatory, Case Western Reserve University, and the Banff School of the Arts.

Jaap Schrצder has recorded for the Smithsonian label, Harmonia mundi (Haydn quartets and L.v. Beethoven's Op. 18), and Virgin Classics (Mozart quartets and quintets). He has long been engaged in research on unknown violin literature of the 17^th and 18^th centuries, and asa result has recorded many compositions by such virtuosi as Uccellini, Leclair, and Biber. He has released the six J.S. Bach solo sonatas (Smithsonian), a complete L.v. Beethoven cycle with Jos van Immerseel (Harmonia mundi), Mozart sonatas with Lambert Orkis (Virgin Classics), Schubert and Mendelssohn sonatas with Christopher Hogwood (Decca), and the Schubert Octet with the Atlantis Ensemble (Virgin Classics). As an orchestra leader and soloist he has recorded with the Concerto Amsterdam (Teldec) and performed with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, the Drottningholm Court Baroque Orchestra, and the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, with which he has recorded works by Mozart and several L.v. Beethoven symphonies (Smithsonian). With Christopher Hogwood, he directed the first complete recording of the Mozart symphonies on Classical instruments with the Academy of Ancient Music (Decca) and recorded Bach’s violin concertos and the Fourth Brandenburg Concerto.

Source: Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20^th Century Classical Musicians (1997); Gallery Concerts Website (1999)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (June 2001)

Jaap Schrצder: Short Biography | Recordings of Vocal Works | General Discussions

Links to other Sites

Jaap Schrצder (Gallery Concerts)