Jacob Slagter

 

Jacob Slagter (1958) was born in Friesland. Jacob showed musicality at an early age; his first horn consisted of a home-made garden hose. Jacob actually wanted to be a footballer and a horn player, but his father made him choose; he had more mouths to feed.

 

His love for music and its analysis began in his youth; while listening to classical works on LPs, Jacob would thoroughly study the scores. Jacob still ends the day with music by Johann Sebastian Bach. Jacob Slagter began his career as a horn player in the Noord Nederlands Orkest and was appointed first solo horn player of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1985. In 1987, he was awarded the Dutch Music Prize for his extraordinary musical achievements. Thanks to this successful period of over 25 years, he has built up a wealth of knowledge and experience.

 

He worked as a horn player under the world's greatest conductors, including Bernard Haitink, Leonard Bernstein and George Solti, and performed as a soloist with Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Riccardo Chailly. Inspired by these examples, he increasingly focused on conducting in addition to his position as a horn player, and was asked to conduct Holland Symfonia, the Gelders Orkest and the Noord Nederlands Orkest, among others. From 2004 onwards, Jacob Slagter regularly assisted Mariss Jansons at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 2003, 2006 and 2009 he led the Entrée orchestra projects of the Concertgebouw and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with great success.

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