Sunday, August 16, 2009

Anton Kersjes

Anton Kersjes was a Dutch violinist and conductor born on August 17, 1923 (Heifetz was 22 years old.) After World War Two, he began his career as a violinist with the Tuschinski Theatre Orchestra in Amsterdam. He later established his reputation as a conductor of the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra - not to be confused with the Royal Concertgebouw. The Amsterdam Phil started its life in 1953 as the Kunstmaand Orchestra and adopted its new name (Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra) in 1969. It then became - after a merger with two other Dutch orchestras - the Dutch Philharmonic Orchestra in 1985. In addition to conducting a huge number of concert, opera, and ballet performances, he was Assistant Director of the Maastrich Conservatory. He also recorded a few albums, a few of which are still available. As far as I know, Anton Kersjes never conducted in the U.S. Outside of Holland, his name is almost never mentioned. He died on December 2, 2004, at age 81.

No comments:

Post a Comment