Last week we made a short trip to Spain with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. We played Mahler 9 in both Barcelona and Murcia. it was nice for me to be able to finish the Mahler 9 concerts after being ill for a week. After playing one concert in Brugge-Belgium and one in Rotterdam I had to quit because of...

Remko de Jager, Ben and Hendrik Jan Renes Today we had a very nice rehearsal with our Rotterdam Philharmonic Low Brass section on some new repertoire we will be playing in many upcoming concerts this season. Steven Verhelst made some great new arrangements with music from Opera and Pop-music. Some more...

Last week I made one of my visits to the Thein factory in Bremen. Together with my friend and colleague Hendrik Jan Renes we had a great time with Heinrich Thein and Olav Brandt. Olav Brandt and Ben with his newest set-up. Great work done Olav! Thanks!!! Besides having a good time we worked on my newest...

Last week I started again with the first week of our new concert season with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra . After a break of 7 weeks I was happy to start again. Like every September for the last 15 years we start with the yearly "Gergiev festival" organised by the Rotterdam Philharmonic...

New line of mutes!!! Dear friends, I had the opportunity to help develop a new line of mutes for the trombone. My colleague, Richard Speetjens , French horn player in the Rotterdam Philharmonic asked my to help. I can tell you the result is absolutely super.
It is a line of wooden mutes for tenor- bass...

This week Sir Simon Rattle conducts my orchestra in three concerts with Bruckner 8th Symphony .We started yesterday with the first rehearsal on this great piece of music. It was clear the orchestra was really into starting with the maestro. Minutes before the official start of the rehearsal everybody...

The June 2008 Asia Tour with the RPhO with its new chiefconductor Yannick We started with 2 concerts in Japan. Yokohama and Tokyo, then 3 concerts in China. 2 in Shanghai and 1 in Beijing. After that it was of to Korea for 1 concert in Seoul and then one more in Taipei, Taiwan. The RPhO lowbrass section...

ITA award winners meet in St. Petersburg The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra played two great concerts in the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Ben van Dijk in the Mariinsky Theater with the RPhO Mahler Symphony no:6 and Berlioz Requiem were performed during the White Night Festival under chief conductor...

Day 0 - Rotterdam
Friday 7 April On Friday night, the Japan tour started with a lot of turbulence in the Rotterdam concerthall The Doelen, where the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra presented the program of their tour to a sold out hall. Conductor Valery Gergiev raised the orchestra to unprecedented...