Since its founding in 2012, Dick van Gasteren has been Ciconia Consort’s conductor and artistic director. Between 2014 and 2021 Van Gasteren was guest conductor of the Orquesta Simón Bolívar in Venezuela, where he was invited by José Antonio Abreu. There he conducted symphonies by Schumann, Bruckner, and Mahler, amongst others. In addition to this, he regularly conducted other Venezuelan orchestras from ‘El Sistema’ such as Juan José Landaete and Teresa Carreño. As professor at the Conservatorio Inocente Careño de Venezuela, he gives lessons and masterclasses in orchestral conducting to talented young students.
Dick van Gasteren studied cello, orchestra conducting, art history, and law. He received cello lessons from Anner Bijlsma at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague, and studied orchestral conducting with Jan Stulen. He continued his studies with Bernard Haitink in London, whom he later assisted during the ‘Mahler Festival Amsterdam’ in 1995. Amongst his awards, Van Gasteren was a Laureate for the conducting masterclass of both the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena and the Wiener Meisterkurs. His concert programme conducting credits include the Limburgs Symfonie Orkest, Noordhollands Philharmonisch Orkest, Nürnberger Symphoniker and Wiener Klangforum Orchester. He has also earned a reputation as an opera conductor, performing operas such as Othello, Don Pasquale, Elektra, and Die Fledermaus with the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater. At the Royal Theatre in The Hague, he has conducted Constant van de Wall’s Dutch-Indonesian opera, Attima.
Dick van Gasteren presented two episodes of the popular Dutch children’s educational television series ‘Het Klokhuis’ where he focussed on the profession of conducting. His book Over jeugdorkesten en de didactiek van het dirigeren (On Youth Orchestras and the Didactics of Conducting) was published by Walburg Pers in 2010. It has subsequently been translated into Spanish for ‘El Sistema’ in Venezuela. In 2022 his book ‘La Musica Notturna delle Strade di Madrid’ van Luigi Boccherini was published by Prominent.