Jörgen van Rijen

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Jörgen van Rijen is Principal Trombone (jointly with Ivan Meylemans) at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. He is also a key member of young Dutch trombone ensemble, New Trombone Collective and Professor of Trombone at the Rotterdam Conservatorium where he studied as a teenager.

Born in 1975, Jörgen started playing trombone aged 8 and from age 16 he learned at the conservatorium under educational director George Wiegel. In his first year he studied Physics in addition before he was sure of following a career in music. During his studies, Jörgen spent three months with Michel Becquet, solo trombone player and teacher at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon.

After briefly playing principal trombone with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, he joined the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the same position in 1997.

He won several prizes and competitions, including the first prize at the International Trombone Competition in Toulon, France in 2001, the first prize at the International Trombone Competition in Guebwiller, France 1999, the first prize at the Holliday-Inn/ClassicFM Competition 1997 and the first prize at the National Soloist Contest for young music talents in 1994. He was also laureate of the International Brass Competition of Nizhny Novgorod in Russia.

In March 2001 Jörgen made his solo debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with the trombone concerto of Henri Tomasi.

Since 2003 he has been a founder and leading member of an ensemble that has been pushing the boundaries of trombone group performance, the New Trombone Collective. Based in Holland, the group has so far released two widely acclaimed CDs and invited to perform all around the world.

In March 2005 Jörgen released his first solo album on the Collins Classics label and this provides ample evidence of a superbly lyrical technique.