Peter Santa

Conductor and music entrepreneur. Half Irish, half Hungarian conductor and music entrepreneur Peter Santa was born in The Netherlands in 1967. He studied violin at the Utrecht Conservatory. His most important teacher there was the famous Russian violinist Philipp Hirshhorn who had great impact on both his playing and his general musical ideas. Peter worked successfully as a soloist, chamber music player and orchestral musician until 1989 when he turned to conducting. In 1990 entered the European International Conductors' Masterclass and was awarded the Eduard van Beinum Prize at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. As a result of him winning this prize, Japanese conductor Hiroyuki Iwaki invited him to come to Japan and Australia to assist him during his work with (among others) the NHK Symphony, the Tokyo Symphony and the Melbourne Symphony. In Europe Peter assisted Mr. Iwaki during his work with the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne and the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. From that moment on his conducting career really started and lead him to orchestras all over the world. In 2002 he founded and became Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra. Next to giving concerts in the best halls in The Netherlands the orchestra tours, records and frequently plays for radio and television broadcasts. In 2011 Peter also founded the Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra, a high quality chamber orchestra with its 'home' at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Codacapo Music Management is Peter's classical music production company.