Jaap van Zweden is eager to lead his first tour with the Chicago Symphony

The year 2025 promises to be a milestone for Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

The former music director of the New York Philharmonic will lead his first tour with the CSO during May 14-23, in a five-city, eight-concert European itinerary that will include stops in Dresden and Hamburg, Germany, and the ensemble’s debut appearances in Prague, the Czech Republic, and Wrocław, Poland.

The centerpiece of the trip will be May 14-15 performances at the Mahler Festival 2025 in Amsterdam’s renowned Concertgebouw. The CSO is the first North American orchestra to appear at the festival, which has been presented just two times starting in 1920. “We are also going to some other cities,” van Zweden said, “but that is the main event.”

Before the tour, van Zweden will lead two sets of concerts at Symphony Center, which will feature the works by Gustav Mahler that it will perform on the tour: Symphony No. 6 in A Minor (May 8-9) and Symphony No. 7 in E Minor (April 17-19).

In all, van Zweden, who has guest-conducted the CSO regularly since his 2008 debut at Symphony Center, will spend about 3½ weeks with the orchestra across two months both in its home hall and on the road in Holland, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.

“I’ve been several times with Chicago on the podium, and I think I have built a wonderful relationship with the players, and it is always sort of a homecoming here,“ he said. ”The DNA of the orchestra is very close, I would say, to my DNA — the energy and commitment. They are extremely fanatical, and I love that, to be honest. And this history of this orchestra is so unbelievable, and they are an orchestra that keeps — day after day, week after week, month after month — their great reputation. That is something I always adore about them.”

In short, he sees the CSO as sort of a second home. And he is eager to bring this orchestra to where he feels so close to his original musical home, where he got his start as a musician: the 137-year-old Concertgebouw. The CSO is no stranger to this great hall, last performing there during 2008 concerts with its then-Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink, including a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 6.

“I want to see how this fantastic orchestra [the CSO] is going to cope with the greatness of [the Concertgebouw], but also the difficulty of the hall." — Jaap van Zweden

“I want to see how this fantastic orchestra is going to cope with the greatness of the hall, but also the difficulty of the hall,“ van Zweden said. ”It’s a hall that really you need to make your own very fast, because we have only one or two rehearsals. But the outcome, if you make this hall your living room in a way, is that it’s the best living room, best hall in the world. That is going to be a little bit of a task, but I’m really looking forward to it.”

In 1979, when van Zweden was just 19 years old and a violin student at New York’s Juilliard School under famed teacher Dorothy DeLay, Haitink asked him to become the concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, a post he held for 18 years. Haitink (1929-2021) had a 65-year relationship with the Dutch orchestra and served as its chief conductor from 1963 through 1988.

“I had just played with Haitink as a soloist,” van Zweden said, “and he said, ‘Please come to Amsterdam and play some more solos with me, but you also need to learn some symphonies.’ And I said, ‘why?’ He said, ‘Well, we need a concertmaster. I know you are 19, but I would like you to try this.’ ”

Van Zweden became a full-time conductor in 1997 and headed several European orchestras before taking over as music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 2008, where he remained until he took over the New York Philharmonic during 2018-2024. His current posts are music director of the Seoul Philharmonic and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

Through all the transitions in his career, van Zweden has maintained a close relationship with the Concertgebouw, and he is excited to return with the CSO for the Mahler extravaganza, which he called a “completely unique festival in the world of music.” The other international orchestras scheduled to appear at the event are: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under its Chief Conductor Designate Klaus Mäkelä, the Berlin Philharmonic under Principal Conductor Kirill Petrenko and guest conductor Daniel Barenboim, Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra under Chief Conductor Fabio Luisi and the Budapest Festival Orchestra under its founder and Chief Conductor Iván Fischer.

The CSO’s Mahler Festival 2025 programs are scheduled for future broadcast locally on WFMT-FM (98.7) and via the CSO’s nationally syndicated radio broadcast series, with details to be announced.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra 2025 European Tour

Jaap van Zweden, conductor

May 14-15, Mahler Festival 2025, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

May 17-18, Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Germany

May 19, Kulturpalast, Dresden, Germany

May 20, Prague Spring Festival, Smetana Hall, Prague, Czech Republic

May 22-23, National Forum of Music, Wrocław, Poland

For more information, cso.org/europetour.