Welcome to the Netherlands Radio Choir

Chief conductor - Celso Antunes

 
" Antunes showed he knows that rarest of arts: how to make the contributions in a perspective that always makes musical sense… He secured performances that were high on illumination, getting inside the music, as it were…“
Michael Dervan, Irish Times

For the last years, the Cologne-based conductor Celso Antunes has been highly active on the European concert scene. His engagements have included appearances at the Donaueschinger Musiktage, Flanders Festival, the Cologne MusikTriennale, the Musikbiennale München, Kurt-Weill-Festival in Dessau, the Living Music Festival in Dublin and November Music in s’Hertogenbosch. Working regularly with choirs and orchestras all over Europe, Antunes has attained success with his interpretations of a wide musical repertoire, stretching from the choral music of Monteverdi, Gesualdo and Orazio Vecchi, through 18th- and 19th-century orchestral classics to the music of the present day, of which he is a devoted advocate.
Since August 2008 Antunes is chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Choir (Groot Omroepkoor) and in September 08 he has taken up his post as professor for Choral Conducting at the Haute ﾉÉcole de Musique de Génève. Between 2002 and 2007, Antunes was the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of The National Chamber Choir of Ireland: The Irish Times wrote about the choir's sensational five years under Antunes that “this period will have to be seen in the future as a golden age for professional choral singing in Ireland”.
He also works regularly with some of the world's leading choirs, such as the SWR Vokalensemble in Stuttgart, the BBC Singers in London, the Berliner Rundfunkchor, the Prager Kammerchor and the Vlaamse Radio Choir in Brussels.
Celso Antunes is increasingly in demand as a guest conductor. During the 09/10 season he will have his much awaited debut with the Manchester Camerata, apart from working for the first time with the Radio Kamer Filharmonie and with the Gelders Orkest (both in Holland) and also with the South Jutland Symphony Orchestra in Denmark. The next season will as well see Antunes returning to conduct the Radio Sinfonieorchester NDR Hannover and the Ulster Orchestra (Belfast).He has appeared, amongst many others, with the Cappella Istropolitana Bratislava, the WDR Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Gürzenich Orchestra Köln, the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Irish Chamber Orchestra and the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra in Riga. He also returns annually to conduct in Brazil, where he appears with the Camerata Fukuda and with OSESP/ São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra.

Celso Antunes began his musical training in Brazil. Born in 1959, he studied singing and conducting at the University of São Paulo. He quickly achieved recognition as assistant conductor of the São Paulo Youth Symphony Orchestra. Subsequently, Antunes obtained a DAAD scholarship to complete his studies on at the Musikhochschule Köln in Germany, where he graduated in 1990. Following his debut with the Neues Rheinisches Kammerorchester at the Philharmonie in Cologne, Celso Antunes was appointed its Chief Conductor, a post he held from 1994 until 1998. As an exponent of contemporary music, Antunes's activities achieved a strong focus during his period as Chief Conductor of the Antwerp-based ensemble Champ d' Action (1994-97), with whom he gave numerous world premieres. But already, in 1991, Celso Antunes had founded his own new music group, the Tippett Ensemble, which continues to give critically acclaimed concerts throughout Europe, always featuring mainly contemporary music. Another highlight of Antunesｴs career was the premiere of a newly re-constructed version of Kurt Weillｴs ballet-pantomime ”Die Zaubernacht” (1922) at the Köln MusikTriennale conducting Ensemble Contrasts.

In August 2004, Celso Antunes has been bestowed the honour of the Order of Rio Branco, in the rank of Commander, by the Brazilian government, for the extraordinary artistic services rendered to his native Brazil.

Watch an interview with Celso Antunes about the Netherlands Radio Choir below.