Jacques Zoon
Professor of flute
- Portrait
Jacques Zoon studied at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam with Koos Verheul and Harrie Starreveld, and later at the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada with Geoffrey Gilbert and András Adorján. He won the 2nd prize at the Willem Pijper Competition in 1981 and received the Special Jury Prize at the Jean-Pierre Rampal Competition in 1987.
Initially a member of the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands (Nationaal Jeugd Orkest) and the European Union Youth Orchestra, Jacques Zoon was subsequently appointed principal flute of the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hague Philharmonic Orchestra, and finally the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, a position he held from 1988 to 1994. From 1989 to 1997, he was principal flute with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. In 1997, he was named principal flute of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and was named "Musician of the Year" in 1998 by the Boston Globe. He is currently principal flute with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the Orchestra Mozart, both conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Today, he performs as a soloist and chamber musician, collaborating with numerous renowned orchestras worldwide. He has made many recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Decca, Chandos, Boston Records, Vanguard Classics, Schwann-Koch, and Pony Canyon, among others. In 1991, he received the Edison Award with pianist Bernd Backman for their recording dedicated to contemporary Dutch music for flute and piano.
He taught at the Rotterdam Conservatory from 1988 to 1994, at Indiana University from 1994 to 1997, and at Boston University and the New England Conservatory from 1997 to 2001. He also teaches chamber music at the Reina Sofia School of Music in Madrid. He has been a professor at the Haute école de musique de Genève since 2002.
