Born in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Jac van Steen studied conducting at the Brabant Conservatory of Music. His participation in the BBC European Conductors’ Seminar in 1985 resulted in guest engagements with the BBC Philharmonic. He has held such posts as conductor and music director of the Bach Choir in Nijmegen, permanent guest conductor of the Bochumer Symphoniker, Music Director of the Dutch National Ballet, chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, Chief Conductor and Music Director of the New Berlin Chamber Orchestra, Music Director of the Deutsches Nationaltheater and chief conductor of the Staatskapelle, Weimar, and chief conductor of the Musikkollegium Winterthur. Currently he is General Music Director of the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra and Opera Theatre Dortmund. His first visit to the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1997 led to immediate return engagements, CD recordings and his debut at the BBC Proms. He has worked with orchestras and ensembles throughout the U.K. and in 2005 returned to the Proms with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, an occasion that marked the formal start of his appointment as the Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor. Jac van Steen teaches conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague and frequently works with the Bundesjugend-Orchester Berlin, the Festival of Young Musicians in Bayreuth, and Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.