Reinbert de Leeuw, born in Amsterdam, is a pianist, conductor and composer. 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 has collaborated on 8 film documentary series of twentieth-century composers such as Messiaen, Ligeti, Gubaidulina, Vivier, Górecki shown on dutch television and which have won international acclaim.
Reinbert de Leeuw regularly conducts Holland's foremost orchestras and ensembles e.g. the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. 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 centre point of the 'Carte Blanche' series in the Concertgebouw Amster¬dam. He is involved in the organization of the series 'Contemporaries' at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
He is a regular guest in most European countries, the United States, Japan and Australia where he has served as artistic advisor for the contemporary music series of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 2000 up to 2004. During that period he has conducted several concerts in Sydney and the Brisbane Festival. Reinbert de Leeuw has been involved in various opera productions at the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam. His recent productions were Strawinsky (a.o. “The Rake’s progress”), Andriessen (“Rosa, a Horse drama”, “Writing to Vermeer”) Ligeti (“Le Grand Macabre”) and Vivier (“Rêves d’un Marco Polo”).
His recordings as a pianist have won many prizes, including the Dutch Edison, the Premio della critica discografica Italiana, the Grand Prix of the Hungarian Liszt Society and the Diapason D'Or. Some 30 recordings as a conductor have been brought out by Philips, teldec, DGG, Electra Nonesuch, Ovidis Montaigne and cover a wide range of repertoire by Messiaen, Strawinsky, Janacek, Liszt, Gubaidulina, Oestvolskaya, Schönberg, Webern, Vivier, Andriessen and Reich.
Reinbert de Leeuw has received the Sikkens Award (1991) and the prestigious '3M' prize (1992) and in 1994 was made Honorary Doctor at the University of Utrecht and is Professor at the University of Leiden.
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. For his performance of Messiaen’s “Des Canyons aux Etoiles” with the Summer Academy Orchestra in 2006, he received the ‘Angel’ for the best performance during the Edinburgh Festival.
This year he holds the musical direction in DIE FREMDEN.