Ciconia Consort, founded in 2012, is a Dutch string orchestra consisting of twenty young musicians under the leadership of Dick van Gasteren. Their concerts are predominately of a thematic nature and often combined with other disciplines such as theatre, literature, and science. Concert programs regularly touch upon contemporary social issues.

The orchestra has built up an extensive repertoire and performs music from all style periods (with an emphasis in late-romantic and modern works). Aside from the well-known works for strings, the orchestra has also revived quite a few forgotten masterpieces, which led to Dutch premieres and world premieres (such as Willem Mengelberg’s Sinfonietta for String Orchestra and Willem van Otterloo’s Prelude, Dance and Epilogue for clarinet and string orchestra). Little known compositions like Symphonie n° 1 pour orchestre à cordes by Jaques Castérède, Sur les flots lointain by Charles Koechlin and Serenade for string orchestra by George Antheil have also been recorded on CD, released on the ‘Brilliant Classics’ label. All CDs (French Music for String Orchestra, American Pioneers, and Rheingold) have received worldwide critical acclaim.

Ciconia Consort has enjoyed collaborations with soloists such as Lavinia Meijer, Isabelle van Keulen, Paolo Giacometti, Pieter Wispelwey, as well as scientists and writers such as Pieter Waterdrinker, Maarten van Rossem, Rosita Steenbeek and Willem Otterspeer. The orchestra can often be heard on Dutch radio and television, in addition to also receiving international airtime on radio stations in Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, United States and Taiwan, among others.
Dick van Gasteren

Since its founding in 2012, Dick van Gasteren has been Ciconia Consort’s conductor and artistic director. Between 2014 and 2021 Van Gasteren was guest conductor of the Orquesta Simón Bolívar in Venezuela, where he was invited by José Antonio Abreu. There he conducted symphonies by Schumann, Bruckner, and Mahler, amongst others. In addition to this, he regularly conducted other Venezuelan orchestras from ‘El Sistema’ such as Juan José Landaete and Teresa Carreño. As professor at the Conservatorio Inocente Careño de Venezuela, he gives lessons and masterclasses in orchestral conducting to talented young students.

Dick van Gasteren studied cello, orchestra conducting, art history, and law. He received cello lessons from Anner Bijlsma at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague, and studied orchestral conducting with Jan Stulen. He continued his studies with Bernard Haitink in London, whom he later assisted during the ‘Mahler Festival Amsterdam’ in 1995. Amongst his awards, Van Gasteren was a Laureate for the conducting masterclass of both the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena and the Wiener Meisterkurs. His concert programme conducting credits include the Limburgs Symfonie Orkest, Noordhollands Philharmonisch Orkest, Nürnberger Symphoniker and Wiener Klangforum Orchester. He has also earned a reputation as an opera conductor, performing operas such as Othello, Don Pasquale, Elektra, and Die Fledermaus with the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater. At the Royal Theatre in The Hague, he has conducted Constant van de Wall’s Dutch-Indonesian opera, Attima.

Dick van Gasteren presented two episodes of the popular Dutch children’s educational television series ‘Het Klokhuis’ where he focussed on the profession of conducting. His book Over jeugdorkesten en de didactiek van het dirigeren (On Youth Orchestras and the Didactics of Conducting) was published by Walburg Pers in 2010. It has subsequently been translated into Spanish for ‘El Sistema’ in Venezuela. In 2022 his book ‘La Musica Notturna delle Strade di Madrid’ van Luigi Boccherini was published by Prominent.