{{short description|Dutch conductor and composer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}} {{family name hatnote|van Otterloo|Otterloo|lang=Dutch}} {{Infobox person | name = Willem van Otterloo | image = Willem van Otterloo (1973).jpg | caption = van Otterloo in 1973 | birth_name = Jan Willem van Otterloo | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1907|12|27}} | birth_place = Winterswijk, Netherlands | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1978|07|27|1907|12|27}} | death_place = Melbourne, Australia | organizations = {{ubl| Residentie Orchestra | Sydney Symphony }} }} '''Jan Willem van Otterloo''' (27 December 1907{{spaced ndash}}27 July 1978) was a Dutch conductor, cellist and composer.
==Biography== Van Otterloo was born in Winterswijk, Gelderland, in the Netherlands, the son of William Frederik van Otterloo, a railway inspector, and his wife Anna Catharina van Otterloo (née Enderlé). He qualified to study medicine at Utrecht University but switched to studying cello and composition at the Amsterdam Conservatoire. While playing as a cellist in the Utrecht Stedelijk Orkest, he won a composition prize from the Concertgebouw Orchestra for his ''Suite No. 3'', which he presented in his 1932 conducting debut, also with that orchestra. He held posts with the Utrecht Stedelijk Orkest, before being appointed chief conductor of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague (1949–1973).<ref name="ADB">{{cite book |last1=Northey |first1=R. E. |title=van Otterloo, Jan William (1907–1978) |chapter=Jan William van Otterloo (1907–1978) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/van-otterloo-jan-william-11909 |publisher=Australian Dictionary of Biography National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |access-date=8 November 2019}}</ref>
He spent his last 11 years in Australia. From 1967 to 1968 he was chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and in 1971 he was appointed chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, where he remained for the rest of his life.<ref name="ADB" />
Particularly prized for his performances of 19th and 20th-century music, he made numerous commercial recordings, mostly for Philips Records, with Residentie Orkest, Concertgebouworkest, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre Lamoureux and (on much rarer occasions) the Sydney Symphony.
He died in the Melbourne suburb of East St Kilda in 1978 from injuries suffered in an automobile accident. His body was flown to The Hague for cremation.<ref name="ADB" />
His notable students include Graham George and Miroslav Miletić.
==Personal life== Van Otterloo was married and divorced four times in the Netherlands.<ref name="IDH">[http://www.inghist.nl/Instituut/Onderzoek/Projecten/BWN/lemmata/bwn2/otterloo Biography at the Institute for Dutch History]</ref> He married Elisabeth ter Hoeve on 1 August 1935 (divorce 1938). On 22 April 1941 he married Anette Jacoba Adriana Heukers, with whom in December of that year he had a son, Rogier van Otterloo (1941–1988),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vinylvulture.co.uk/pages/van_otterloo1.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030807030052/http://www.vinylvulture.co.uk/pages/van_otterloo1.htm |archive-date=7 August 2003 |title=R Is For Rogier (Page One)}}</ref> who would become a well-known conductor in the Netherlands as well. He and Anette divorced in April 1943, but remarried 28 April 1944. They would have another son and two daughters, but divorced again on 20 September 1954. Ten days later he married Susanne Maria Anna Wildmann with whom he had another daughter. A month after his fourth divorce, he married Carola Gertie Ludewig (born 1945) on 12 August 1970 in Australia.
==Compositions== *''Suite'' (1938) *''Symphoniëtta for 16 Wind Instruments'' (1943) *''Serenade'' (1944)
==Discography== * Willem Van Otterloo and Residentie Orkest: The Original Recordings 1950–1960. 13 CDs. Challenge Classics, ''CC 72142'' * von Weber's Der Freischütz overture with the Residentie Orchestra in 1951 on Philips S 06003 R.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/van-otterloo-jan-william-11909 Willem van Otterloo] at the Australian Dictionary of Biography
{{s-start}} {{s-culture}} {{succession box | title=Principal Conductor, Residentie Orkest | before=Frits Schuurman | years=1949–1973 | after=Jean Martinon}} {{s-end}} {{Sydney Symphony conductors}} {{Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conductors}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:van Otterloo, Willem}} Category:1907 births Category:1978 deaths Category:20th-century Dutch conductors (music) Category:Dutch male conductors (music) Category:Dutch classical cellists Category:20th-century Dutch cellists Category:20th-century Dutch classical composers Category:20th-century Dutch male composers Category:Deutsche Grammophon artists Category:Dutch male classical composers Category:Dutch expatriates in Australia Category:People from Winterswijk Category:Road incident deaths in Victoria (state) Category:Chief conductors of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Category:Chief conductors of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra