A remarkable start of a conducting career: After a succesful career as a cellist
in 1995
Vincent de Kort, at the invitation of Mariss Jansons, made his debut
conducting the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. His breakthrough followed
in 1997 when he stepped in at the last minute for Gennady
Rozhdestvensky with the European Union Youth Orchestra (soloist Radu
Lupu) at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. This rapidly led to further
engagements, he has since then been invited by the Gewandhausorchester
Leipzig, Staatskapelle
Dresden, New Japan Philharmonic, Mariinsky Orchestra,
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Phlharmonic, Residentie
Orchestra, Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Metropolitain de
Montreal,
Brussels Philharmonic, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Bochumer Symphoniker, Magdeburger Philharmonie, Brandenburger Symphoniker, Wurtembergisches Kammerorchester, Sinfonia Varsovia, Kungliga
Hovkapellet Stockholm, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Sonderjyllands Symfoniorkester, Holland Baroque, Johannesburg Philharmonic, KZN Philharmonic
Orchestra Durban, Bern
Symfonie Orchester, Luzern Sinfonieorchester, Zürich Symphony
Orchestra,
Orchestre Symphonique de Tours, Evian Festival Orchestra, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, Limburgs Symfonie Orkest, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Orkest van het Oosten,
Brabants Orkest,
Metropole Orkest,
Transylvanian Philharmonic, Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, Amman Symphony
Orchestra, Izmir State Symphony Orchestra, Palestine National
Orchestra, 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 continued his studies in St. Petersburg with Ilya Musin, the
legendary teacher of Valery Gergiev, and was the
assistant conductor to Bernard Haitink, William Christie and Gennady Rozhdestvensky.
Equally at home on the concert platform and in
the opera house, De Kort has also built up an extensive operatic
repertoire and is now in demand in some of the world's leading opera
houses including Mariinsky Theatre (Cosi fan tutte and La Clemenza di Tito), Bolshoi Theatre (Bach B-minor Mass - Vladimir Vasiliev) Semperoper
Dresden (La Bohème),
Royal Swedish Opera (Carmen),
Oper Leipzig (Rodolphe's Jason et Médée), Scottish Opera (Cosi fan tutte and Die Zauberflöte),
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 (Cosi 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 Cosi fan tutte at
the Festival 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, with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie Die Entführung aus dem Serail. At the Russian Operahouse in Kazan he has been a regular guest, conducting Le Nozze di Figaro, La Traviata, Falstaff, Aida, Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, L'Elisir d'amore and Boris Godunov. Baroque opera productions on period instruments
he has conducted are Purcell's The
Fairy Queen,
Campra's L'Europe
Galante, Lully's Cadmus et Hermione, Vivaldi's
Juditha Triumphans.
Vincent
de Kort has established himself among the finest Mozart conductors.
Because of his close collaboration with early music specialist William Christie
in
Paris (he was a cellist of Les Arts Florissants), de Kort deepened his knowledge of baroque and classical music. 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 Amsterdam 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 is jury chairman of the highly popular TV program MAESTRO and
was recently jury member of the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition in
New York. He was principal guestconductor of the Zürich Symphony Orchestra and was
musicdirector and founder 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 runner. He runs two marathons each year.






