Vincent De Kort
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.