André de Ridder
Anna Wetherell
Jennyfer Fouani
Jane Brown
“One of the world’s most daring conductors”
Wall Street Journal
General Music Director: Theater Freiburg
Founder: s t a r g a z e
André de Ridder is the Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the Theater Freiburg. He is in demand internationally for his impressive stylistic versatility, from baroque to contemporary music. His projects and collaborations take him to orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, Orchestre de Paris and Concertgebouworkest.
Over the course of the 2023/24 season, De Ridder will conduct new productions of Hänsel und Gretel, Don Carlos and Die Zauberflöte at the Theater Freiburg, the latter in an imaginative retelling of the story set within an immersive gaming world and directed by frequent collaborator Marco Štorman. Other highlights of the season in Freiburg will include concerts with soloists Colin Currie, Isata Kanneh-Mason and Antje Weithaas, and symphonic works such as Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and Mahler’s Symphony No.5.
De Ridder will also make guest appearances with such orchestras as the New World Symphony Orchestra Miami, the Oulu Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. He returns to Staatstheater Stuttgart for revivals of the 2019 production he premiered of Nixon in China and returns to Theater Basel, taking their critically acclaimed 2022 production of Einstein on the Beach to Philharmonie de Paris. He continues his curatorship and performances of ‘Unclassified Live’ at London’s Southbank Centre, a series of genre-defying performances featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra.
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The “livewire conductor” (The Times) has formed close relationships with some of the most prominent opera composers of our generation, including Michel van der Aa, Daníel Bjarnason, Nico Muhly and Kaija Saariaho. De Ridder also recently performed repertoire works such as Bluebeard’s Castle (Philharmonia Orchestra) and Scenes from Goethe’s Faust by Schumann (Staatstheater Stuttgart), collaborating with directors such as Kasper Holten, Barrie Kosky and Enda Walsh. He made his debut at Oper Köln last season, for performances of Der Meister und Margarita by York Höller.
In 2013, De Ridder founded s t a r g a z e, performing projects ranging from Bach to avant-garde electronics, and contemporary classical music. The group have gained a significant following, and are regularly invited by leading concert halls, including the Barbican Centre London, the Kölner Philharmonie and Philharmonie de Paris, plus Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. Their series ‘(not) Another Beethoven Cycle’ is a re-examination of all of Beethoven’s symphonies, commissioning a host of artists from a diverse range of disciplines to respond to each symphony. The project has so far appeared at Elbphilharmonie, Helsinki Festival, Lucerne Festival and Kölner Philharmonie.
De Ridder’s discography includes an album of orchestral music by Bryce Dessner and Jonny Greenwood and the hugely successful Four Seasons Recomposed by Max Richter, both for Deutsche Grammophon. The Max Richter recording was awarded an ECHO Klassik Classic Without Borders award and has topped the classical charts in over 20 countries. For Transgressive Records, De Ridder also acted as producer on the release of Africa Express Presents: In C Mali. This followed a trip to Bamako, Mali, with Damon Albarn and his Africa Express project. In Mali, de Ridder initiated and led a recording of Riley’s In C with local musicians, joined by travelling Western artists, including Brian Eno and Damon Albarn.
De Ridder was Artistic Director of Musica Nova Helsinki 2017 – 2021, and in 2018 was the recipient of a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for his innovative work as Artistic Curator of London’s Spitalfields Festival.
“De Ridder imbued the performance with a tangible sense of anticipation thanks to his cohesive, taut conducting.”
“De Ridder conducted with a supreme elegance throughout the performance taking the orchestra through to the glorious finale.”
“Through careful phrasing and tempered dynamic expression, de Ridder led the orchestra in a captivating performance.”
“Under the fiery baton of André de Ridder, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra gave a spectacular reading of Bartók’s score. This was virtouso playing, worthy of any international symphony orchestra, with Ridder bringing a powerful intensity to the performance.“
“The RTÉ Concert Orchestra, under Andre de Ridder, delivers a thrilling, sensitive take on Bartok’s music, wringing out all the drama, dissonance and momentum of a score that is proto-cinematic.“
“This [Debussy’s La mer] was a gorgeous performance with the brass and woodwind sections notably enjoying the rich orchestration. From its opening evocation of dawn on the ocean to the final movement’s violent contest between air and water, the APO and de Ridder gave us an exhilarating version full of colour and variety.“
“Under careful and strict conducting by André de Ridder, the performance was tight and exciting.“
