Since the summer of 2021, she has been our chief conductor: Anja Bihlmaier. As one of today's most in-demand female conductors, she travels frequently. All over the world she conducts top orchestras. But her base is The Hague where she regularly visits the sea and the dunes and of course conducts her own Residentie Orkest . 

Anja's love of music all began in high school. An inspired music teacher made sure she learned to play violin and piano. At 16, she took a conducting course and was allowed to conduct a mini-opera. "It was overwhelming to be in the middle of all that energy, to make music together with musicians and share that amazing experience with the audience. That's when I knew so much what I wanted to do for the rest of my life: conduct. That shared experience is also one of the most beautiful aspects of being a conductor. Bringing music to life and experiencing it together in concert, that is wonderful and at the same time essential: you can really only hear an orchestra live." 

She has now been chief conductor of the Residentie Orkest for six months. How does she look back on that period? "It started off super with the start in the Concertgebouw and later the Prinsjesdag Concert. Those performances went well. It's really nice to work with this orchestra. At the beginning we performed the same program several times; therefore we had a lot of time to get to know each other." How she gets to know the orchestra and all the musicians? "By making music together. During rehearsals, I hear how they play and what their personalities are. I quickly figure out what people are like and the musicians also sense me well. An orchestra is a lot about trust; it's like a relationship. Getting to know each other, trusting each other, trying out what works and what doesn't. From the beginning, I indicated that I wanted open communication. I would like musicians to be able to come to me with their own ideas about the music. Criticism, in my opinion, is always something positive." 

Source Last paragraph: Reformatorisch Dagblad 

SEE ANJA IN ONE OF OUR CONCERTS