Jörgen van Rijen

Jörgen van Rijen (born 20 February 1975, Dordrecht) is Principal Trombone (jointly with Bart Claessens) 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.

Jörgen started playing trombone aged 8 and from age 16 he learned at the Rotterdam Conservatory 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 where he also studied baroque trombone with Daniel Lassalle.

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 the Netherlands, the group has so far released three widely acclaimed CDs and been invited to perform all around the world.

In 2004 he was awarded the Netherlands Music Prize, the highest distinction awarded by the Dutch Ministry of Culture, awarded by the state secretary of culture during a concert given by the RCO, with which he was performing as the soloist in the trombone concerto 'Solo' by Luciano Berio.

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

In 2006 he received a Borletti Buitoni Trust Award.

In 2007 Dutch composer Theo Verbey was commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to write a trombone concerto with Jörgan van Rijn as soloist. LIED was premiered in September 2007, and has since been performed by the Czech Philharmonic in Prague.

His instruments are listed as:

Discography

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