Jan Willem de Vriend is principal conductor of the Wiener KammerOrchester, principal guest
conductor of the City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, and artistic partner of the Bergen
Philharmonic Orchestra. Previously, he served as principal conductor of the Residentie Orkest The Hague, and chief conductor of Phion.
He makes regular guest appearances with such ensembles as the Belgian National Orchestra, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Melbourne Symphony, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and Tonhalle Orchester Zürich.
Trained as a violinist, De Vriend first established an international reputation as Artistic Director of the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, which he established in 1982 and led from the violin until 2015. The ensemble specialized in music of the 17th and 18th century, applying historically informed practice on modern instruments. In the field of opera, in both Europe and the USA, de Vriend and Combattimento Consort Amsterdam gave remarkable and acclaimed performances of works by Monteverdi, J.S. Bach, Handel, Telemann, Haydn and Mozart in stagings by the director Eva Buchmann.
In 2012 De Vriend received a prize from the Dutch national station NPO Radio 4 for his creative contribution to classical music.
He has conducted the Concertgebouw Orchestra several times since 2009, most recently in Bach's Christmas Oratorio during the 2015 Christmas Matinee.