About Antoine van Dongen
Antoine van Dongen, Dutch violinist, pianist and conductor, has been on the faculty of Wellesley College, New England Conservatory, MIT, and the Walnut Hill School of Arts between 2005-2011.
Mr. van Dongen had a distinguished career serving as a first violinist with the world famous Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam from 1989 to 2004 and worked closely with Leonard Bernstein, Antal Dorati, Carlo Maria Giulini, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, Ricardo Chailly and Mariss Jansons. Between 1988-1989 Antoine van Dongen was first violinist of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
He has been a member of the Chamber Orchestra “Per Musica” and the Dutch Bach Soloists. Mr. van Dongen played regularly with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century with Frans Bruggen.
He has served as concertmaster of the Dutch Baroque Ensemble. As a founding member of the Feininger Piano Trio and the European Boccherini String Trio, van Dongen participated frequently in Master classes with the Beaux Arts Trio and the Dutch Guarneri PianoTrio. Antoine van Dongen was a Silver Medalist at the National Violin Competition Oskar Back in 1983 and won the “prize of the City Amsterdam” for the best interpretation of contemporary music.
The prize scholarship enabled him to study at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Sandor Vegh. The same year Antoine van Dongen made his debut in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He graduated from the Sweelinck Conservatory of Music in Amsterdam. His teachers were Davina van Wely and Herman Krebbers (former Concertmaster of The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra). Antoine van Dongen moved to the Bay Area in 2012 and became a member of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra.
He gave masterclasses at the University of the Pacific and worked with students from Stanford University, the University of the Pacific, UC Berkeley and the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of Arts. He plays regularly with the Empyrean Ensemble at UC Davis and the ECO ensemble at UC Berkeley. He was on the distinguished faculty of the Finn centre of Music and Arts in Mountain View between 2013-2024 Antoine van Dongen was also guest conductor of the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra. Mr. van Dongen joined the music faculty at UC Berkeley in September 2014.
Antoine van Dongen is a member of the Röntgen Piano Trio with pianist Mark Anderson, Assistant Professor at UBC and cellist Eric Gaenslen, former artist-in-residence at the University of Washington and former member of the esteemed Rossetti String Quartet. Antoine van Dongen is co-director of the New World Music Academy in Pleasanton.