Conductor Jaap van Zweden made his U.S. conducting debut with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 1997. He's made several returns, most recently last March. He returns again Friday for a weekend program of Wagenaar, Mozart (with German pianist Martin Helmchen in the Piano Concerto No. 25) and Brahms' Symphony No. 4.

Van Zweden started his musical career at age 5 in his native Amsterdam, playing the violin. Ten years later, winning a music competition allowed him to study at New York's Juilliard School. In 1979, at 19, he became the youngest concertmaster of the Netherlands' famed Concertgebouw Orchestra.

A few years later, he began conducting at the suggestion of Leonard Bernstein, who invited him to lead a rehearsal. Bitten by the baton-wielding bug, van Zweden resigned as concertmaster in 1995, emerging as a full-time conductor in 1997.

He's been on an upward trajectory since, with prestigious appointments in Europe and here — he's now in his fourth season as music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra — and in December won Musical America's conductor of the year award. This year, he'll also take up duties as music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

Van Zweden made his St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and North American conducting debut simultaneously in 1997 at the urging of another Netherlands native, then-SLSO music director Hans Vonk.

He worked with Vonk at the Concertgebouw.

"We became very close and friendly, and I played as a soloist with him," recalls van Zweden, who also worked extensively with such major conductors as Bernard Haitink, Georg Solti, Carlo Maria Giulini and Antal Dorati, and learned from them all. "They were all constantly at the Concertgebouw."

Van Zweden has another strong tie to St. Louis: orchestra president and CEO Fred Bronstein, who hired van Zweden to lead the DSO.

"He came to Copenhagen and St Martin in-the-Fields to hear me, and he hired me," van Zweden says. "I had a very close and warm relationship with him. I'm so grateful that he had the trust in me, and I think that he's a wonderful leader himself."

Van Zweden brings a largely unfamiliar name and music to his St. Louis program: the Overture to "Cyrano de Bergerac," by the Dutch composer Johan Wagenaar (1862-1941).

"This music has the spirit of Richard Strauss," van Zweden says. "It's a hard piece for the orchestra, but a good showpiece."

The familiar music of Mozart, he says, is "a moment for the orchestra to switch in style, to be as precise as you can be, making chamber music with quite a big group of people. And Brahms — there is so much music between the notes."

Van Zweden has been married since 1983 to Aaltje van Zweden-van Buuren. They have four children: a daughter, Anna-Sophie, and three sons, Daniel, Benjamin and Alexander.

Benjamin, 21, has autism, and his parents set up the Papageno Foundation to help children like him.

"We are very much involved in music therapy for autistic children," he says. "When he was 6 or 7, we discovered that when we were singing a little song for him, if we left out one word, he would get very angry — but finally, he filled it in himself.

"That's how we stretched him. That's how we finally made him learn the language."

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Jaap van Zweden and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

When • 8 p.m. Friday and Feb. 25; 3 p.m. Feb. 26

Where • Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand Boulevard

How much • $25-$112

More info • stlsymphony.org or 314-534-1700