Rotterdam Symphony Chorus

The Rotterdam Symphony Chorus is a new professional symphonic choir, founded in consultation with Rotterdam’s concert hall De Doelen and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Artistic director and conductor of the Rotterdam Symphony Chorus is Wiecher Mandemaker. The chorus is an extension of the Laurens Collegium Rotterdam (www.laurenscollegium.nl) and belongs to the same organisation, the Stichting Laurenscantorij. Rotterdam Symphony Chorus has been brought into being to be able to perform compositions requiring a professional symphonic chorus.

The Rotterdam Symphony Chorus performs Howells’ Hymnus Paradisi with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Laurenscantorij and conductor Martyn Brabbins on November 6th (Den Bosch) and November 7th (de Doelen), 2015.

One of the recent highlights was the premiere of four choruses from The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams, arranged for chorus and instrumental ensemble by Bob Zimmerman in February 2015. In 2014, it performed Britten’s War Requiem with the Gelders Orkest, as part of the events to commemorate Operation Market Garden in WO II. This performance was highly acclaimed in Dutch newspapers (5 out of 5 stars in Trouw, 4 out of 5 stars in Volkskrant).

The Rotterdam Symphony Chorus made its debut in the season 2013-2014 with the young piano brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen in Johannes Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem in the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Amsterdam. Another notable performance was Ralph Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony (click here to listen) in the Doelen with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. The choir sang at the ceremony of the Children’s Peace Prize held in the Ridderzaal in The Hague, the international city of peace and justice, in the presence of Nobel price winner Desmund Tutu.

Wiecher Mandemaker is the artistic director and conductor of the Rotterdam Symphony Chorus, the Laurens Collegium Rotterdam and the Laurenscantorij. Wiecher works as the Choir Conducting section representative at the Rotterdam Conservatoire, where he is also conductor of the Codarts Chamber Choir. For choir projects, he cooperated with conductors such as the late Frans Brüggen, Jaap van Zweden, Ton Koopman, James Gaffigan, Harry Christophers and Ed Spanjaard.