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
Vincent 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, Orquestra Filharmônica de Minas Gerais in Brasil, 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.
Opera
Equally at home on the concert platform as in the opera house, he has built up an extensive opera repertoire. From Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Bizet, Mussorgsky and Offenbach to the contemporary period, and is in demand with opera houses including the Mariinsky Theatre (close relationship with Valery Gergiev), Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, Royal Swedish Opera Stockholm, Semperoper Dresden, Oper Leipzig, Scottish Opera, New National Theatre Tokyo, Lithuanian National Opera, Tatarstan National Opera, Theater Luzern, Theater Bern, Opéra de Tours, Magdeburg Theater, Hawaii Opera and the Dutch Nationale Reisopera.
With period instruments he conducted baroque operas by Purcell, Vivaldi, Campra and Lully.
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, Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Bozar Brussels, Maison Symphonique Montreal, Tivoli Kopenhagen, Nelson Mandela Theatre Johannesburg.
In 2015 Vincent de Kort was the first Dutch conductor in history to conduct at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, leading the 75th birthday gala for Vladimir Vasiliev, one of the most legendary Russian dancers in history as well as former artistic and general director of the Bolshoi Theatre. Vasliev’s long time dream was to create and direct a full-staged production of Bach’s B-minor Mass. His urgent message to the world: Dona Nobis Pacem! The extraordiany event, conducted by Vincent de Kort, was live broadcasted on Russian TV.
Vincent de Kort 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’
Mozart and especially the Da Ponte operas have been a through-line in his career. Vincent de Kort is praised for his dynamic period-style interpretations of the Mozart symphonies and operas, a reputation he developed during his years as a member of early music ensemble Les Arts Florissants in Paris. He has been invited by opera houses and orchestras to conduct the Mozart operas in Vienna, St Petersburg, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Edinburg, Glasgow, Brighton, Vilnius, Kazan, Brussels, Antwerpen, Magdeburg, Bochum.
Recent
Recent highlights include his debut in Brasil, together with star bariton Taehan Kim, 1st prizewinner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2023 in Brussels, his Canadian debut with Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, the orchestra of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. With Orchestre Métropolitain De Kort recorded two CD’s for the Canadian label LEAF. He was invited by Vadim Repin to conduct the opening concert of his Trans-Siberian Art Festival with the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra and Tchaikovsky Competition prize winner Clara-Jumi Kang. He conducted Mahler, Bartok and Piazzolla with the Residentie Orchestra at Tivoli Vredenburg in Utrecht, Wagner, Kagel and Milhaud with the Brussels Philharmonic at Bozar, Beethoven, Ravel and Berlioz with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Brahms, Beethoven and Smetana with the Free State Symphony Orchestra in Bloemfontein. With the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn, he came to the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw with a program of Piazzolla and Gershwin.
Mission
Vincent de Kort is strongly committed to outreach work, aiming to bring a large and diverse audience in contact with classical music. With this mission in mind, and with his contagious enthusiasm, he is a frequent guest on the Dutch national television in various programmes on classical music. From 2015 - 2019 he was jury chairman of the successful primetime TV program Maestro, every Sunday night watched by two million viewers. He is dedicated to educational and young talent projects as jury chairman of the Royal Concertgebouw Competition, of the International Conducting Competition in Kiev and jury member of the Jensen Vocal Competition in New York, the Swiss Muri Competition, the jury to nominate the Composer of the Nation (Componist des Vaderlands) and he regularly teaches conducting masterclasses. A TEDx speaker, de Kort is invited regularly to speak about leadership. In 2019 his book ’The Magic of the Maestro' was published at Singel Publishers.
Education
He studied cello in Amsterdam with Dmitri Ferschtman. After that he also studied baroque cello and became a member of the European Baroque Orchestra, where he worked with Frans Brüggen, Ton Koopman, Sir Roger Norrington, Trevor Pinnock, Willam Christie. It was William Christie who asked him to become a member of 'Les Arts Florissants’ in Paris and who encouraged him to be a conductor. Vincent de Kort then studied conducting with Ed Spanjaard in The Hague, Mariss Jansons in Oslo and the legendary Ilya Musin in St. Petersburg and became assistant conductor to Bernard Haitink, Gennady Rhozdestvensky and William Christie.
His career took off when in 1996, at the invitation of his mentor Mariss Jansons, he made his debut conducting the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1997, while being assistant conductor of the European Union Youth Orchestra, he made a dream debut at the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw, jumping in at the very last minute for Gennady Rhozdestvensky conducting the EUYO with Radu Lupu as a soloist. In addition to his performing career, Vincent de Kort likes boxing and is a passionate marathon runner.
Mozart - Don Giovanni
Brussels Philharmonic - Semi-staged Concertgebouw Amsterdam
'An overflowing Concertgebouw was almost dancing on the stools with pleasure having seen, heard and above all experienced Mozart's Don Giovanni ...a performance that sparkled, bubbled and buzzed.'
- Trouw
Shostakovich - Symphony no 10
Evian Festival Orchestra - Festival d'Evian
‘The famous second movement reveals itself terrifying in its millimetric precision and perfectly controlled violence. Led by de Kort in a diabolical tempo the musicians followed him to perfection, playing as if on a knife-edge’
- ClassiqueInfo
Mahler / Mendelssohn / Hamburger
Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal
'Under the direction of the great Dutch Maestro Vincent de Kort, l'Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal offered us a program full of emotion’
- Radio-Classique
‘Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal under the direction of Vincent de Kort plays the stars of heaven!’
- OpusKlassiek
Mendelssohn / Paganini
Orchestre Symphonique de Tours - Grand Theatre de Tours
‘De Kort's radiant gestures, brought sunshine from the orchestra, as much as dramatic storms! What wonderful weather!’
- La Nouvelle République du Centre-Ouest
Rodolphe - Jason et Medée
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig - Oper Leipzig
‘Vincent de Kort führt das Gewandhausorchester von harmonischen Schwung zu zarter Dramatik.’
- Leipziger Volkszeitung
‘Youthful Vincent de Kort conducted with vigor. A truly Titanic achievement!’
- Bachtrack
Verdi - Aida
Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra / Pretoria State Theatre
‘…the audience was mesmerized by de Kort’s command in the orchestra pit.’
- Business Day in SA
Mozart - The Magic Flute
Scottish Opera
‘The best of it is in the pit, with the brilliant Dutch conductor Vincent de Kort making the Scottish Opera Orchestra sound like a tight, racy period band - don't be late or you'll miss the overture.’
- The Herald
Rossini - Il Barbiere di Siviglia
European Sinfoniëtta - Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam
‘De Kort was the radiant centre around which it all happened.’
- Trouw
Mozart - Die Zauberflöte
Netherlands Nationale Reisopera
‘The man who made perhaps the greatest impression in the opera was the Dutch conductor Vincent de Kort.’
- Algemeen Dagblad
