Jan Willem de Vriend, designated “a godsend from the Netherlands” by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, is driven by the pioneering spirit of historically informed perfomance practice. As music director of the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, which he founded in 1982, he specialised in repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries, reviving a wealth of rarely heard works through historically informed performances on modern instruments, praised by Gramophone magazine for their “technical finesse and a lively feeling for characterization”.
An award-winner for his creative contribution to classical music, Jan Willem de Vriend has more than 50,000 followers on Spotify and is in demand as a conductor around the world, appearing regularly with such orchestras as the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Belgian National Orchestra, Tonhalle Zurich, Orchestre National de Lyon, Bergen Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, the symphony orchestras of Netherlands Radio and Hessischer Rundfunk (Frankfurt Radio Symphony), Melbourne Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony and Hong Kong Philharmonic. He is Principal Conductor Designate of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Stuttgart Philharmonic and Orchestre National de Lille, and former Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya and the Brabant Orchestra.
For the Challenge Classics label, de Vriend and the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra have recorded the complete Mendelssohn symphonies and all Beethoven’s symphonies and concertos with, among others, pianist Hannes Minnaar and violinist Liza Ferschtman. De Vriend’s interpretation of the Symphony No 7 prompted Classic FM to admire “a bounding flair that does real justice to the composer’s capacity for joy”. A further landmark of his recorded catalogue is his complete recording of the Schubert symphonies with the Residentie Orkest Den Haag.
De Vriend’s collaborative spirit is equally evident in his work for the stage, notably with opera director Eva Buchmann and Combattimento Consort Amsterdam. In addition to works by Monteverdi, Haydn, Handel and Telemann, their productions in Europe and the USA have included staged versions of Bach’s ‘Hunting’ and ‘Coffee’ Cantatas at the Bachfest Leipzig, and operas by Mozart, Rossini, Verdi and Cherubini, among them Mozart’s Don Giovanni und Rossini’s La gazzetta, both toured in Switzerland. De Vriend has also conducted operatic productions in Amsterdam (with the Nederlandse Reisopera), Barcelona, Strasbourg, Lucerne, Schwetzingen and Bergen.

Marcel Reijans is one of the leading tenors in the Netherlands. Acclaimed for his lyrical roles in Mozart, Strauss and Wagner, Reijans has performed in major opera houses throughout Europe and America. He has been a guest at the opera houses of Berlin, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Hamburg, Dresden, Baden-Baden, Düsseldorf, Geneva, New York City, Boston, Lyon, Philadelphia, Saint Louis, Marseille, Angers/Nantes, Cagliari, Montpellier, Aix-en-Provence, Antwerp, Palermo and Bologna.

Mr. Reijans commands a diverse and extensive repertoire of more than 70 operas including the roles of Don José in Carmen, Erik in Der fliegende Holländer, Narraboth in Salome, Matteo in Arabella, Max in Der Freischütz, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Grigory in Boris Godunov, Walther von der Vogelweide in Tannhäuser, Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress, Loge in Das Rheingold, Fenton in Falstaff, Chevalier de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites, Le Prince Philippe in Yvonne, Princesse de Bourgogne, Anatol in Vanessa, Camille in Die Lustige Witwe, Candide in Candide, Andres in Wozzeck, Kudrias in Kát’a Kabanova, Paris in King Priam, Tristan in Le vin herbé, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and Ferrando in Così fan tutte.

His concert engagements have included performances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, NDR Sinfonieorchester, Concerto Köln, Göteborgs Symfoniker and Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg.

He has been a guest at various festivals and in renowned concert series including the BBC Proms, Schwetzinger Festspiele and NTR ZaterdagMatinee in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam as well as the festivals of Aix-en-Provence, Tanglewood, Montreux, Innsbruck and Brisbane. Mr. Reijans has worked with numerous conductors including Yves Abel, Daniel Barenboim, Bertrand de Billy, Frans Brüggen, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph Eschenbach, Peter Eötvös, Valery Gergiev, Hartmut Haenchen, Thomas Hengelbrock, René Jacobs, Philippe Jordan, Ton Koopman, Sir Simon Rattle, Seiji Ozawa, Edo de Waart and Jaap van Zweden.

On the concert stage Mr. Reijans performed in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Mendelssohn’s Elias and Die erste Walpurgisnacht,Lizst’s Faust Symphony, Hohe Messe and the arias and role of the evangelist in St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion (Bach), Messiah and La Resurrezione (Händel), Requiem, Krönungsmesse and Der Messias (Mozart), Die Schöpfung (Haydn), Petite Messe Solennelle (Rossini), L’Enfance du Christ (Berlioz), Messa di Gloria (Puccini), Te Deum (Bruckner), The Bells (Rachmaninov), Serenade for Tenor and Horn (Britten) and Child of our time (Tippett).

In addition to an extensive solo career, Marcel Reijans founded Dutch ensemble Frommermann, a group of five singers, pianist and guitarist that performs a wide variety of music ranging from Schubert and cabaret songs from the interbellum to modern popular songs. From 2005 – 2013 Mr. Reijans was the managing and artistic director of Frommermann, leading the ensemble become one of the most well-known Dutch chamber music groups that specialise in light and classical music.

In 2015, Reijans founded Taralli, a new ensemble with two tenors, two baritones and a pianist. Taralli performs famous opera repertoire in a theatrical setting.

Mr. Reijans is on the vocal faculty of Codarts Rotterdam and Prins Claus Conservatory in Groningen and has given masterclasses at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague. Since 2014 he also has a private vocal studio named “Studio Fritz”.

Consensus Vocalis was founded as a choir in the mid-1980s, with the aim of performing the large-scale works of Johann Sebastian Bach. These performances were given in conjunction with the likes of the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Concerto d’ Amsterdam, Musica Amphion, Holland Baroque Society and The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra.
The choir has also collaborated with The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra in a number of performances and recordings, with conductors including Jaap van Zweden, Jan Willem de Vriend, David Porcelijn and Klaas Stok.
Klaas Stok is the choir’s artistic director until the summer of 2018, while the commercial manager is Francis Faas.

The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra is based in Enschede, in the province of Overijssel. Performing at an international level, as evidenced by its highly acclaimed CDs and invitations for international tours, the orchestra is firmly rooted in society.
Jan Willem de Vriend has been its artistic director and chief conductor since 2006. He will be succeeded by Ed Spanjaard in 2017. Under De Vriend’s leadership, the orchestra has expanded its repertoire to cover music from four centuries. Its use of period instruments in the Classical repertoire gives the orchestra a distinctive and highly individual character.
The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra performs amongst others in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Enschede, Zwolle and Deventer. In addition, it has made successful tours of the United States, Spain and England and it often works with the Dutch National Touring Opera Company. In its home town Enschede, the orchestra builds on a symphonic tradition of more than 80 years, and it is known as one of the most modern and entrepreneurial orchestras in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra created a number of ensembles, such as a chamber orchestra, the Baroque Academy of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra (BANSO) and various chamber music ensembles. The orchestra’s commitment to expanding its social relevance is also reflected in the large number of projects in which education is a key element.
The orchestra has worked with distinguished conductors, such as its former chief conductor Jaap van Zweden, Vasily Petrenko, Edo de Waart, Claus Peter Flor and Tan Dun. It also has accompanied many celebrated soloists, including Gidon Kremer, Ronald Brautigam, Natalia Gutman, Charlotte Margiono, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Thomas Zehetmair.

Klaas Stok is amongst the leading choral conductors of the Netherlands. His repertoire ranges from the renaissance till contemporary music. He works with many professional choirs in the Netherlands and abroad. Since 1993, he works with The Netherlands Chamber Choir, alternately as director and freelance conductor. Since 1 March 2015, he is also leader of the Dutch Radio Choir. He has also been conductor and artistic director of Consensus Vocalis.
As a freelance conductor, Stok led many choirs and ensembles, such as Collegium Vocale Gent, Capella Frisiae, the Brabantkoor, Musica Treize, Cappella Amsterdam and Chamber Choir Ireland. In Germany, he is regularly invited to the SWR Vokalensemble in Stuttgart, where he conducted several awarded productions for children, to Chorwerk Rurh, with which he gave a series of Christmas concertos, and to the the choir of the NDR in Hamburg, where he prepared several orchestral productions. From 1 August 2018 onwards, he will become the chief conductor of this choir.
Besides, he collaborated with many orchestras and ensembles, including The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonietta Amsterdam, Combattimento Consort, Concerto d'Amsterdam, Musica Amphion, Holland Baroque, the Valerius Ensemble, the Parnassus Ensemble and others.