Edo de Waart is retiring after more than sixty years as a conductor. The 82-year-old de Waart has been principal conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (RFO) for many years and was supposed to give two more concerts with the orchestra this weekend, but has canceled them. He announced that this was no longer possible and described it as a difficult decision.

When de Waart retired from his position as principal conductor of the RFO in 2004, he was appointed conductor emeritus and continued to perform regularly with the orchestra.

He began his musical career in the early 1960s as an oboist with the Dutch Wind Ensemble and joined the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1963. A year later, he won a conducting competition in New York and was allowed to work for a year as assistant to Leonard Bernstein in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He then became Bernard Haitink’s assistant in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Since 1967 he has conducted the Dutch Wind Ensemble and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. After a period with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, he became principal conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in 1989. In addition, during his long career he conducted dozens of orchestras and opera houses around the world and was the first artistic director of the Music Center for Radio (MCO) in Hilversum. With RFO he also gave a large number of concerts with Groot Omroepkoor.

“Edo’s influence on the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Music Radio Center is invaluable. We have always worked together with great pleasure and passion. We wish him a happy retirement with his family,” says Director Maurits Heinen of the Music Radio Foundation.

De Waart was also a great lover of opera and staged many productions with De Nederlandse Opera, of which he was artistic director for a few years. He left the company due to differences in technical views.

He recorded a lot of music with the RFO, including all of Mahler and Rachmaninov’s symphonies. When he stopped serving as permanent conductor, he said: “I had the best time of my life here. This is an orchestra where people treat each other with kindness, without kinship.”

But he also recorded operas and orchestral works with other orchestras, as well as concertos with world-famous soloists such as singer Elle Amling, oboist Heinz Holliger and violinist Arthur Gromieux.

Karina Kanellakis, the orchestra’s current conductor, says De Waart was of great importance not only in the Netherlands, but also internationally. “Not only as a highly skilled craftsman with his interpretations of standard repertoire, but also as a champion of contemporary music.” She says she is excited to build on what he achieved with RFO and that the musicians will miss him on stage.

Last year, De Waart conducted the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra with Richard Strauss’s In Albensephonie: