Dirk Brossé, Music Director
The Dr. Hubert J.P. Schoemaker Memorial Conductor’s Podium
Photo by Wouter Maeckelberghe
Dirk Brossé, an internationally acclaimed conductor and composer, is currently Music Director of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. He is also Professor of Composition and conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Ghent, Belgium.
Dirk Brossé has guest-conducted many major symphony orchestras throughout the world, among them, the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Madrid, Birmingham, Ulster, Liverpool, Glasgow, Prague, Copenhagen, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul, Queensland, St Petersburg, Caracas, Osaka, Munich, Dublin, Krakow, Budapest, Vancouver, and Los Angeles.
Maestro Brossé is also a highly-regarded, award-winning composer whose body of some 400 works encompasses concerti, oratorios, lieder, chamber music and symphonic pieces, as well as scores for cinema, television and stage, including the Emmy-nominated score for the BBC/HBO series, Parade’s End. Other scores include Prince of Africa, Daens, Sacco & Vanzetti, Tintin, Rembrandt, Ben X, Pauline & Paulette, 14-18 and Scrooge. Maestro Brossé’s versatility is evident in commissions written for age-old instruments around the world, an enthusiasm that has led him to champion variety in repertoire and integrate broad cultural traditions in his programs for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. His Pictures at an Exhibition, inspired by a series of paintings on display in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was commissioned by the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in 2015 and had its world premiere in the Perelman Theater, followed by a performance in New York City’s Carnegie Hall.
Maestro Brossé is a versatile and creative performer with a keen interest in cinematic music and an early proponent of bringing movie scores to orchestral venues. He was chosen by John Williams to conduct the Star Wars in Concert World Tour in 2009, the first of its kind. He is also director of The World Soundtrack Academy at the prestigious Ghent Film Festival.
He has made more than 100 CD recordings and has collaborated in diverse artistic projects with world class artists such as José Van Dam, Barbara Hendricks, Julia Migenes, Julian Lloyd Webber, Alison Balsom, Salvatore Accardo, Sara Sant’Ambrogio, Anthony Mcgill, John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Elmer Bernstein, Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, Mark O’Connor, Michel Legrand, and John Malkovich. He has worked with directors Stijn Coninx, Susanna White, and Roland Joffé, and with writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Considered one of Belgium’s foremost cultural luminaries and world ambassadors, Dirk Brossé has been awarded virtually all of Belgium’s highest artistic honors, including a knighthood. He is a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, and a Fellow in Arts & Humanities at the Brussels University VUB, as well as a recipient of the Global Thinkers Forum Award for Excellence in Cultural Creativity.
An enthusiastic “artistic citizen” of Philadelphia, Maestro Brossé has led the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia since 2010. His tenure with the ensemble has been associated with creative programming designed to cultivate a broader appreciation for the unique experience and enduring relevance of the chamber orchestra in contemporary music life, and a keen appreciation for the versatility and virtuosity of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. www.dirkbrosse.be