The Dallas Symphony’s Culture Shifting Maestro Prepares His Goodbyes as New York Beckons: Jaap van Zweden Leaves a Changed Orchestra — and Immediate Uncertainty

All good things must come to an end – and so, after a decade of leading the Dallas Symphony Orchestra to new heights, music director Jaap van Zweden is ready to bow out. The Dutch conductor is leaving Dallas this summer for the New York Philharmonic as PaperCity reported last January.

While the DSO has not yet found his successor, van Zweden seems optimistic about the future of the orchestra as he prepares to depart.

“This orchestra has been, I would say, a flower which was overshadowed by some, in people’s eyes and ears, bigger flowers, and I think that now you can say that this orchestra is in the top league of the orchestra world,” van Zweden tells PaperCity. “I think that’s the biggest accomplishment that the orchestra could give themselves.

“That is something I’m proud of and they should be proud of.”

Helping the Dallas Symphony realize its full potential is something van Zweden has worked at every day of the past 10 years.

“The big plan was to have this orchestra use more of their talents than they were using when I came in,” he says.

There were plenty of growing pains in Dallas along the way. The practice was endless, as was the demand for improvement.

“If you look at the great orchestras… there was a time in their history that they work like that, and we did that here,” van Zweden says. “I mean, I go to big orchestras — Berlin Philharmonic… Amsterdam, New York, Chicago – they work really hard to keep that level, and this is the thing that this orchestra is realizing now.”

Maintaining the prestigious reputation of the New York Philharmonic will be the primary challenge in van Zweden’s new position, which has been held by legends such as Leonard Bernstein and Zubin Mehta.

“These people have all proved that they were the right choice, and I still have to do that,” he admits.

Van Zweden has already begun splitting his time between New York and Dallas and will get to know the Philharmonic musicians more extensively on an upcoming tour of Asia.

“I’m going to search for all the small details to see where we can improve and where we can encourage the talent to come out,” he says. “It’s like a diamond you need to clean it… and the cleaning process is a wonderful process. And, you know, I’d like to say that the road to heaven sometimes is probably more beautiful than heaven itself.”

After 10 years of walking that road with the DSO, van Zweden has a special connection with Dallas that will live beyond his tenure.

“In the coming years when I will return here, there is one thing I can assure you: when I fly into the airport I will feel always at home here,” he says. “And, I never felt Dallas as my second or my third home, but my other home, and this is going to stay, I know that.”