A remarkable start of a conducting career: in
1995 the Dutch conductor
Vincent de Kort, at the invitation of Mariss Jansons, made his debut
conducting the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. This rapidly led to further
engagements with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw Chamber
Orchestra, and other Dutch orchestras including the Noord Nederlands Orkest,
Limburgs Symfonie Orkest, Orkest van het Oosten, Brabants Orkest.
He
has since being invited by the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle
Dresden, New Japan Philharmonic, Flemish Radio Orchestra,
Sinfonia Varsovia,
Bochumer Symphoniker, Kölner Kammerorchester, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Johannesburg Philharmonic, KZN Philharmonic
Orchestra Durban, Bern Symfonie Orchester, Zürich Symphony
Orchestra,
Orchestre Symphonique de Tours, European Sinfoniëtta, as well as the European Union Youth
Orchestra, in
which he had formerly been a cellist, under the direction of Claudio
Abbado.
Having studied with Ed Spanjaard in The Hague and Mariss
Jansons in Oslo, he was invited to St. Petersburg to study with the
legendary teacher of Valery Gergiev, Professor Ilya Musin and was the
assistant conductor to Bernard Haitink and Gennady Rozhdestvensky.
Vincent
de Kort has established himself among the finest Mozart conductors.
When
he became the assistant to early music specialist William Christie in
Paris, de Kort deepened his knowledge of baroque and classical music.
With his
experience of baroque, classical and the romantic repertoire, he is now
widely respected for leading orchestras in specific period-style
performances. In consequence Vincent de Kort has received the highest
praise for his dynamic interpretations of the Mozart operas:
Of
his Don Giovanni in the Concertgebouw with the Flemish Radio Orchestra in 2006 the Dutch newspaper Trouw wrote: 'An
overflowing Concertgebouw was almost dancing on the seats with pleasure
...the performance sparkled, cavorted and buzzed'. About his Cosi fan
tutte in Edinburgh Scotland's The Herald quoted: 'Dutch conductor Vincent de Kort is
a real discovery!', then later after Die Zauberflöte: ...'a brillliant
conductor! ...he makes the Scottish Opera Orchestra sound like a tight,
racy period band - don't be late or you'll miss the overture!'.
Holland's Volkskrant wrote of his Le Nozze di Figaro: ' Vincent de Kort
is the ideal theatre-conductor'.
Vincent de Kort frequently conducts at renowned operahouses including the Oper Leipzig (Rodolphe's Jason et Médée), Semperoper Dresden (La Bohème), Scottish Opera (Cosi fan tutte and Die Zauberflöte), New National Theatre Tokyo (Le Nozze di Figaro), Theater Luzerne (Peter Grimes), Theater Bern (Bizet's La jolie fille de Perth), and the Dutch Nationale
Reisopera, where he has conducted Die Zauberflöte, Die lustige Witwe and Peter Schat's Monkey Subdues the White-bone Demon. In Vienna he conducted Cosi fan tutte in Schönbrunn, in the Robeco summerseries in Amsterdam's 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 Khumalo's contemporary Zulu opera Princess Magogo. With the Bochumer Symphoniker La Clemenza di Tito. At the State Opera of Tatarstan he has conducted a vast repertoire
including Le Nozze di Figaro, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Traviata, Falstaff, Aida and Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov.
In
1997 he was the founder and musicdirector of the international
chamberorchestra European Sinfonietta as well as the Opera Festival
Alden Biesen in Belgium. In addition to his performing career Vincent de Kort is a passionate long distance runner. He runs two marathons each year.