Pieter Jan Leusink

Pieter Jan Leusink (2008)

Pieter Jan Leusink (* 1958 in Elburg ) is a Dutch conductor of various choirs and vocal ensembles. He leads an orchestra that he founded himself .

Career

Pieter Jan Leusink wanted to become a gardener in his youth , but he was also strongly drawn to the music he heard every Sunday on the organ of his Reformed home community in Elburg . Already in his childhood he received organ lessons and at the age of 16 he was accepted to study organ at the Stedelijk Conservatorium in Zwolle .

After completing his studies, he worked as an organist for three years, but found little fulfillment in it and decided to become a choir conductor. A master class with the British conductor David Willcocks in 1984 encouraged him - he was 26 years old at the time - to found a boys and men choir in Elburg, the Holland Boys Choir , which no longer exists.

In 1996 Leusink founded the Netherlands Bach Collegium , later renamed The Bach Orchestra of the Netherlands, and a year later a mixed adult choir , The Bach Choir of the Netherlands . Since 2006, both ensembles have performed together under the name The Bach Choir and Orchestra of the Netherlands . Since 2000, Leusink has also been the conductor of the Urk men's ensemble and until 2009 led the Rijssen men's choir. In 2010 he founded another vocal ensemble under the name Vocal Group CALL .

Leusink has specialized in the voice development of boy sopranos.

Concert practice

The choirs and orchestras led by Leusink give around 150 concerts every year, and they also take part in music festivals in other countries. Her repertoire consists of the choral works by Johann Sebastian Bach (including the St. Matthew Passion ), Brahms ( A German Requiem ), Georg Friedrich Handel ( Messiah ), Mozart ( Requiem and Coronation Mass ), Fauré and Vivaldi .

All concerts are carried out without government subsidies. The income from the concerts, which have a total of around 120,000 visitors, is used, among other things, to pay the fees of around one hundred singers and instrumentalists.

Vocal Group CALL

The Vocal Group CALL is an ensemble in changing composition with three sopranos , three counter-choirs , four baritones and four basses , which was founded in 2010 by Pieter Jan Leusink to build a bridge between classical and popular music . Compositions from the classical repertoire, such as the Ave Maria von Schubert , are popularized through special arrangements , whereby the original orchestral line-up is enriched with instruments from popular music, including drums , bass guitar and saxophone .

CD and DVD recordings

In the year of Johann Sebastian Bach's commemoration in 2000, Leusink published around 200 sacred cantatas on a total of 60 CDs with his choirs and orchestras as well as various soloists . Six million CDs were sold worldwide. Up until 2009 concerts with the Holland Boys Choir received three gold and two platinum CDs.

Awards

In 2004 Leusink received the rank of knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion .

Web links

• Article in De Pers of March 5, 2008 about the Dutch performance practice of the St. Matthew Passion ( Memento of September 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive )