Johannes Leertouwer is one of the most outstanding musicians of the Historically Informed Performance Practice in The Netherlands. After studying in Amsterdam, Vienna and Prague, with professors Bouw Lemkes and Josef Suk, he performed as a soloist or concertmaster with period instrument ensembles and orchestras all over Europe. He made highly acclaimed Cd recordings including all Beethoven works for violin and piano and all Mozart works for violin and orchestra. At present he is first violinist of the Narratio string quartet, performing the complete Beethoven quartets on period instruments in six concert programs. Johannes Leertouwer plays a violin made by the brothers (Antonio & Hieronymus) Amati in Cremona in 1619. He has been a violin professor and conductor at the conservatory of Amsterdam for over 30 years, before committing to SNU as a professor for HIPP in 2022.
As a guest conductor he appeared with orchestras in The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan. From 2009 Johannes Leertouwer has been chief conductor and artistic leader of the ‘Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht’ (NPU). With this orchestra he has played and conducted a wide range of repertoire, from a debut program in 2009 with Ravel and Stravinsky to annual tours with Händel’s Messiah and Bach’s Matthew Passion. The orchestra plays on period instruments, also in 19th and 20th century repertoire.
Johannes Leertouwer conducts a PhD research project at Leiden University into the historical performance practice of Brahms’s orchestral music and he documents his research process and his result on a special website brahms.johannesleertouwer.nl
