About
Since its foundation in 2012, Dick van Gasteren is the conductor and artistic leader of the string orchestra Ciconia Consort.
Van Gasteren also is permanent guest conductor with the Venezolan 'El Sistema', where he regularly leads the famous orchestras Teresa Carreño, Simón Bolivar and Francisco de Miranda. During masterclasses he teaches orchestra conducting to talented young conductors of 'El Sistema'.
Dick van Gasteren studied the cello, orchestra direction, art history and law. He started out his musical training at the age of nine as a cello player and subsequenctly went to The Royal Conservatoire in The Hague with Anner Bijlsma (master's degree in 1988). He studied orchestra direction with Jan Stulen (High Certificate in 1990), followed by lessons from Bernard Haitink in London. He studied art history and law at the University of Leiden, where he became master of law in 2003.
Van Gasteren attended master classes on the cello with - amongst others - Heinrich Schiff and Godfried Hoogeveen, was a stand-in at multiple Dutch orchestras and played recitals throughout Holland, among which the Kleine Zaal of the Concertgebouw. He was a laureate at the conductor master class of the 'Accademia Musicale Chigiana' in Siena with Ferdinand Leitner and at the Wiener Meisterkurs. As assistent of Haitink, he conducted the Fernorchester at a concert of the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest during the Mahlerfestival Amsterdam (1995).
Amongst others, Van Gasteren conducted the Limburgs Symfonie Orkest, the Noordhollands Philharmonisch Orkest, the Nürnberger Symphoniker and the Wiener Klangforum Orchester. He also conducted operas at the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater (Othello, Don Pasquale, Die Fledermaus and Elektra) and the Koninklijke Schouwburg Den Haag (Attima, Dutch-Indonesian opera by Constant van de Wall).
In 2003 he appeared in two episodes of the television show 'Het klokhuis', in which the profession of conductor took centre stage. In October 2010 his book 'Over jeugdorkesten en de didactiek van het dirigeren' was published by Walburg Press. Dick also published a few - recently by him discovered - Dutch symphonic works from the composer Johannes Josephus Viotta.
For a period of ten years, Van Gasteren successfully conducted the Viotta Youth Orchestra in great works of orchestra literature (Stravinsky, Strauß, Mahler, Bruckner, Rachmaninov en Sjostakovitch) and regularly appeared in the big concert halls, such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and on Dutch radio and television. Viotta also had five successful foreign tours tournees (e.g. Prague, Florence, Salzburg, Venice). During the summer of 2007 he lead the Viotta orchestra to a first prize in the international orchestra competition Summa Cum Laude and conducted the final concert in de Golden Hall of the Wiener Musikverein.