Jaap van Zweden leads French orchestra after New York Philharmonic

Conductor Jaap van Zweden will not leave his position as music director of the New York Philharmonic until later this summer.

But his post-New York plans are already taking shape. In January, Van Zweden officially began a five-year term as music director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. And on Tuesday he announced another new job: he will become music director of the Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France, a French radio orchestra in Paris, for a five-year term from 2026.

The 63-year-old Van Zweden succeeds Mikko Franck, who will step down next year after ten years on stage. Van Zweden will take over as musical director next year, the orchestra said in a press release, which will lead several weeks of concerts and a European tour.

Van Zweden, who started as concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam in 1979, at the age of 19, said he would like to be part of a European ensemble again.

“I couldn’t be happier to inaugurate this relationship with the Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France,” he said in a statement. “In Paris I can once again experience the musical colors that I know from the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, another great European orchestra.”

Van Zweden made his debut with the Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France last year with Mahler’s First Symphony and a violin concerto by John Adams. The orchestra’s players said they felt an immediate connection.

“From the first rehearsal, it was clear that we had found our new music director,” Jean-Pierre Odasso, chairman of the musicians’ council, said in a statement, calling Van Zweden’s appointment “a real delight for the musicians.”

The orchestra said Van Zweden planned to promote new works during his term, with a special focus on contemporary pieces by French composers. In October 2025 he will lead his first European tour with the ensemble.

Van Zweden, a native of Amsterdam, came to New York in 2018, but his tenure was interrupted by the pandemic.

In 2021, he made the surprise announcement that he was leaving New York, saying the pandemic had made him reconsider his life and priorities. His six-year tenure will be the shortest of any philharmonic music director since Pierre Boulez, the French composer and conductor who led the orchestra for six seasons in the 1970s.