Biography

Dutch conductor Vincent de Kort is a regular guest in many of the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls, collaborating with some of today’s most admired soloists and orchestras. He is known for his energetic conducting style, inspirational leadership and charismatic communication with musicians as well as audiences around the world. He developed a reputation as one of the finest Mozart conductors and has been widely respected for his period-style and very dramatic performances of the Beethoven symphonies. Whilst his work previously maintained a focus on early music, de Kort is nowadays sought after for a wide repertoire, ranging from the classical and romantic period to world premieres across the globe.

Orchestras
De Kort has worked with renowned orchestras around the world, among them the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, New Japan Philharmonic, Mariinsky Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, Residentie Orchestra, Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Philharmonie Zuid Nederland, Orchestre Metropolitain de Montreal, Sinfonia Varsovia, Oslo Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Bochumer Symphoniker, Magdeburgische Philharmonie, Brandenburger Symphoniker, Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn, Royal Swedish Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester, Berner Symfonieorchester, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Zürcher Symphoniker, Orchestre Symphonique de Tours, Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, Izmir State Symphony Orchestra, Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra, Filharmonica Transsilvania, Johannesburg Philharmonic, KZN Philharmonic Durban, Free State Symphony Orchestra, Palestine National Orchestra, European Sinfoniëtta, Holland Baroque as well as the European Union Youth Orchestra, in which he was formerly a cellist under the direction of Claudio Abbado. He appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, Brighton Festival, Schönbrunn Festival Vienna, Bach Festival Leipzig, White Nights Festival St Petersburg, Trans-Siberian Art Festival, Sjaliapin Festival Kazan, Festival d’Evian, Caracalla Festival Rome, Voices Festival Holzhausen.

He was the founder and artistic director of the ‘Opera Festival Alden Biesen’ in Belgium, the ‘Young European Opera Festival’, as well as the Chamber Orchestra ‘European Sinfonietta’

Opera
Equally at home on the concert platform as in the opera house, De Kort has built up an extensive repertoire and is in demand with opera houses including the Mariinsky Theatre, invited by Valery Gergiev (Così fan tutte and La Clemenza di Tito), Royal Swedish Opera (Carmen), Semperoper Dresden (La Bohème), Oper Leipzig (Rodolphe's Jason et Médée), Scottish Opera (Die Zauberflöte and Cosi fan tutte), New National Theatre Tokyo (Le Nozze di Figaro), Lithuanian National Opera (Le Nozze di Figaro), Theater Luzerne (Peter Grimes), Theater Bern (Bizet's La jolie fille de Perth), Opéra de Tours (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Magdeburg Theater (Così fan tutte), Hawaii Opera (Les Contes d'Hoffmann and Jonathan Dove's Siren Song) and the Dutch Nationale Reisopera (Die Zauberflöte, Die lustige Witwe and Peter Schat’s Monkey Subdues the White-bone Demon).

In Vienna he conducted Così fan tutte at the Schönbrunn Festival, with the Bochumer Symphoniker La Clemenza di Tito, with the Brussels Philharmonic Don Giovanni, with the Netherlands Philharmonic highlights of Porgy and Bess and Westside Story, with the NWD Philharmonie Die Entführung aus dem Serail, in Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Il Barbiere di Siviglia. In the Nelson Mandela Theatre in Johannesburg de Kort has led an acclaimed Aida and Kumalo’s jazzy Princes Magogo. At the Russian Operahouse in Kazan he has been a regular guest, conducting La Traviata, Falstaff, Aida, Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly, Boris Godunov, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, L'Elisir d'amore and Le Nozze di Figaro.

Baroque operas with period instruments he conducted are The Fairy Queen (Purcell), Judith Triumphans (Vivaldi), L’Europe Galante (Campra), Cadmus et Hermione (Lully).

In 2015 de Kort was the first Dutch conductor ever to conduct at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, leading the 75th birthday gala for Vladimir Vasiliev, together with Rudolph Nureyev the most legendary Russian dancer, and who later became general director of the Bolshoi. His long time wish was to direct a full-staged production of Bach’s B-minor Mass. The extraordiany event was live broadcasted on Russian TV.