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Reinbert de Leeuw

conductor

About this Artist

In the field of modern and contemporary music, REINBERT DE LEEUW is known world-wide and highly respected. Born in Amsterdam, he pursues musical activities that cover a wide field: conductor, composer, and pianist. Since 1974 he has been conductor and music director of the Schönberg Ensemble. He is also author of a book on Charles Ives and a book with musical essays, and he has collaborated on eight film documentary series of 20th-century composers such as Messiaen, Ligeti, Gubaidulina, Vivier, and Górecki which have been shown on Dutch television and won international acclaim.

Reinbert de Leeuw regularly conducts Holland’s foremost orchestras and ensembles, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, Residentie Orchestra The Hague, and ensembles such as the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the ASKO and the Netherlands Wind ensembles, and the orchestras of the Dutch Radio. He has toured and performed in festivals worldwide. He was guest artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival (1992) and was artistic director of the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music (1994-1998). In the 1995/96 season he was the center point of the Carte Blanche series in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. He is involved in the organization of the series “Contemporaries” at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

He is a regular guest conductor in France, Germany, England, and Belgium, and the United States (Tanglewood Festival, New World Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lincoln Center Chamber Music Group New York, Aspen, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; he also lectures at the Juilliard School of Music in New York), Japan, and Australia, where he served as artistic advisor for the contemporary music series of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 2000 to 2004.

Reinbert de Leeuw has been involved in various opera productions at the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam. His recent productions there were Stravinsky (The Rake’s Progress), Andriessen (Rosa, a Horse Drama; Writing to Vermeer), Ligeti (Le Grand Macabre), Vivier (Rêves d’un Marco Polo), Robert Zuidam’s opera Rage d’Amours. Recent engagements at the Netherlands OPera were the world premiere of Louis Andriessen’s La Commedia (June 2008) and Rob Zuidam’s new opera Adam in Exile (June 2009).

Reinbert de Leeuw has been co-founder and from 2001-2010 artistic director of the Summer Academy, the international orchestra and ensemble academy of the National Youth Orchestra in The Netherlands. For his services and importance to music and culture in The Netherlands, he has been knighted in the Order of the Dutch Lion.