The Dutch website Pointer has published anonymous complaints of verbal abuse against the Dutch international conductor Jaap van Zweden. The full report will go online later today.Pointer interviewed over 50 musicians, management and staff from seven of the orchestras Jaap van Zweden conducted at home and abroad during the past 25 years.
Van Zweden is former music director of the New York Philharmonic and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. He is presently with the Seoul Philharmonic and recently toured Europe with the Chicago Symphony.
A US musician said: ‘He shouts at you as if you were a four-year-old. A former HK player said: ‘When he is having a go, you’re on your own… It’s not just the orchestra, everyone fears him. All the way up to the management.’ The identiy of the musicians has been validated by the site but they uiformly insisted on anonymity.
Van Zweden has issued this response to Pointer: ‘As a conductor, I continually call people out on what could be better. Sometimes I will use an intense tone and if that occurs in the presence of 120 other people, that won’t always feel nice. I know I can be demanding. (…) However, that can never be an excuse for a working environment that leads to people feeling constrained or using tranquillizers.’
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