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Antoine van Dongen, violin/piano
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 Maris Jansons.
Antoine van Dongen was member of the Dutch Bach Soloists and played regularly with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century with Frans Bruggen. He has served as concertmaster of the Dutch Baroque Ensemble. 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 2011 and became a member of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra at the same joining the music faculty at UC Berkeley. He gave masterclasses at the University of the Pacific and worked with students from Stanford University, the University of the Pacific and the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of Arts. He played regularly with the Empyrean Ensemble at UC Davis and the ECO ensemble at UC Berkeley. Mr van Dongen was distinguished faculty member 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.
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 and resides in San Rafael since the summer of 2024.