Allard de Ridder

Allard de Ridder (3 May 1887 – 13 May 1966) was a Dutch–Canadian conductor, violist, and composer. He was notably the first conductor of both the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, the latter of which he founded in 1944. As a composer he produced several orchestral works, including a violin concerto, four symphonic poems, a Sketch for flute, violin, and orchestra, Overture in D, and Intermezzo. He also wrote a string quartet, the scherzo Beware of Love for a cappella choir, and a number of songs.

De Ridder was born in Dordrecht, Netherlands, as the son of Eudia Lina Pierson and Willem de Ridder, banker, cellist and president of the Dordrecht Music Society. From 1899 he studied violin in The Hague with Carl Bayer, and between 1903 and 1909 he studied violin and conducting at the Cologne University of Music under Fritz Steinbach and Hermann Abendroth. His conducting career started in Arnhem. Here Willem Mengelberg saw him and was so impressed that he invited him to be guest conductor with his Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. He later conducted the Residentie Orchestra in The Hague, where he took composition lessons from Johan Wagenaar. He was conductor of the Netherlands National Opera (Nederlandsche Opera) from 1917 to 1919. In April 1918 in Amsterdam, he married Pauline E.E. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (grand-niece of the famous composer), whom he had met in Cologne.