About the Orchestra
The Toonkunstorkest Leiden (TOL) is an amateur symphony orchestra with around 65 members. The orchestra was founded in 1874 and has a history of 150 years. It gives three concerts per season. In addition, TOL frequently accompanies choruses and participates in other types of music projects. Since 2012, we have often formed the basis of the orchestra for the Scratch Music Days in the Pieterskerk (St. Peter’s Church), Leiden.
Every other year we organise an international concert tour. In June 2024 the destination was Leuven, Belgium. Earlier concert tours brought us to Antwerp and Gent in Belgium, Chemnitz and Münster in Germany, Cardiff, Bristol and Oxford in England, Solothurn in Switzerland, as well as to Istanbul, Warsaw, and Paris.
Rehearsals are on Wednesday evenings from 19:45 until 22:15 (7:45pm until 10:15pm) at the Bonaventura College, Mariënpoelstraat 6, Leiden. This location is within walking distance of Leiden Central train station.
TOL has social media channels on Instagram and Facebook, where you can find photos, updates, and fun stuff!
Openings and vacancies
At this moment the orchestra is accepting a few experienced first violinists. String players usually play with the orchestra for a few weeks before the section leader and conductor decide on membership status. Wood and brass players go through an audition process.
Interested? Email for more information!
Membership is 290 euros per year, students 145 euros.
About the Conductor
Jeppe Moulijn (1972) began his studies in composition and musicology, but decided to major in conducting. He studied orchestral conducting with Ed Spanjaard and Jac van Steen at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. He concluded his studies as a guest conductor with the Radio Symphony Orchestra.
He conducted several professional orchestras in the Netherlands, Germany, and France. In 2003 he was a finalist in the international Prokofiev competition for young conductors in St. Petersburg, Russia. On this occasion, he conducted the renowned St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.
Among the many student and amateur orchestras Jeppe is a well-known conductor. In addition to conducting the Toonkunstorkest Leiden (since 2007), he also conducts the Oost-Nederlands Symphonie Orkest (East Netherlands Symphony Orchestra), and the Leiden student orchestra Collegium Musicum.
Composer
In recent years Jeppe Moulijn is more frequently active as a composer. After the premiere of his violin concerto in 2007 in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw (with violinist Joris van Rijn), he wrote music for, among others, the International Chamber Music Festival on Schiermonnikoog and for the vocal ensemble Musa, directed by Peter Dijkstra.
The premiere of his viola concerto was in November 2010 with Francien Schatborn, first altist of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2012, he wrote the compulsory work for the International Vocal Competition (IVC) in Den Bosch.
In 2019 the Toonkunst Orchestra Leiden performed his ‘Voyage to Creation’, an oratorium for orchestra, choir, and baritone. In this work he placed the story of the Creation (Genesis 1), represented by the choir, next to fragments taken from Charles Darwin’s diaries kept during his ‘Voyage of the Beagle’, sung by baritone Michael Wilmering. The first performances of this work in Leiden and Hilversum were both sold out. A great cd is still available from this website.
Upcoming concerts
Our next concert takes place:
Saturday, July 6 at 20.15 hrs (8.15 PM) in the Stadsgehoorzaal in Leiden – buy tickets
Program:
Aleksander Borodin: Polovetsian Dances
Maurice Ravel: Sheherazade, with Karin Strobos, mezzo soprano
Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov: Scheherazade
Would you like to listen to TOL? The CD of the premiere of Voyage to Creation in 2019 is available and can be ordered through this website!
Information about previous concerts here
Translated: Lydia Bavdaz