Andre Rieu

André Rieu was born on October 1, 1949 in Maastricht, Netherlands. He began studying music at the age of five when she started learning violin. After studying at the Conservatoire Royal and the Conservatorium Maastricht, he attended the Music Academy in Brussels, later earning his Premier Prix degree from the Royal Conservatory in Brussels.

Rieu created the Maastricht Salon Orchestra in 1978 and later in 1987 established the Johann Strauss Orchestra and his own production company. The Strauss Orchestra first performed in 1988 with 12 musicians. Today the act tours with up to 150. The tours rank highly in terms of revenue and number of shows, landing in Billboard’s Top 25 Tours annually since 2008. Rieu and his orchestra have released both CDs and DVDs ranging from classical to folk music. He has won two World Music Awards and gone gold and platinum in several countries. Rieu has gone platinum eight times in the Netherlands. Rieu and his orchestra hold an annual New Year’s concert that is broadcast publicly.