Fokko Oldenhuis, conductor

Fokko Oldenhuis is course instructor and teacher of choral conducting at the Application Course for choral conducting and the International Kurt Thomas Course for choral conductors at the Conservatory of Utrecht. He was educated at the conservatories of Groningen and Amsterdam, where he graduated with distinction in 1997. His teachers included Bruno de Greeve and Daniel Reuss.

Fokko Oldenhuis is conductor of the Hollands Vocaal Ensemble Amsterdam, the Utrechtse Studenten Cantorij and Kamerkoor Next. He also leads a number of project choirs, including the Neon choir for newest music and Slotkoor. From 2020 onwards, he will be conducting the annual Good Friday performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Edam. He has performed in Belgium, Germany, Poland, France, England, Italy, Spain, Croatia and Brazil and has appeared on radio and television, both in the Netherlands and abroad.

Fokko Oldenhuis frequently works in Brazil. He has given guest lectures and masterclasses at the universities of São Paulo (USP) and Londrina (UEL). Every year he performs at the Festival Unicanto de Corais in Londrina, and in 2018 he conducted the Londrina premiere of Mozart’s Requiem with the orchestra of the UEL and an international choir, consisting of singers from Brazil, the Netherlands and Colombia. Furthermore, he has given workshops on a variety of topics, among others at the Europa Cantat festival of 2015 in Pécs, Hungary.

Fokko Oldenhuis strives to perform a great deal of new music. He has conducted many premieres of choral compositions written at his request. Every year his choir Neon and the Conservatory of Amsterdam work together to perform new compositions for choir and organ at the Orgelpark in Amsterdam. Moreover, he annually performs new compositions for choir and live electronics with the Neon choir and the composition department of the Conservatory of Utrecht, at the Open Performance Site in the St Nicolas church in Utrecht.

Fokko Oldenhuis is artistic adviser of the Foundation for Cultural Events of the St Nicolas Church in Utrecht and a member of the artistic committee of the Netherlands Student Chamber Choir. In 2010 he and his colleague Hans Noyens wrote a book about the dos and don’ts of rehearsal technique for choral conductors (Doen en Laten, repetitietechniek voor koordirigenten).