Reinbert de Leeuw studied music theory and piano at the Amsterdam Conservatoire and composition with Kees van Baaren at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. He taught at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. He is a well-known conductor and pianist performing mainly contemporary music. He is the founder of the “Dutch Charles Ives Society”. Since 2004 he is a professor at the Leiden University in “performing and creative arts of the 19th, 20th and 21st century.
In 1974 he founded the Schönberg Ensemble. They focus on performing works by the 2nd Viennese School. For the strings of the ensemble he composed the piece Etude (1983–1985). This is one of his most recent composition. Since then he has only made adaptations and instrumentations.
Reinbert de Leeuw regularly conducts Holland's major orchestras and ensembles, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, New Sinfonietta Amsterdam, Residentie Orchestra The Hague and ensembles such as the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the ASKO and the Netherlands Wind ensembles and the orchestras of the Dutch Radio. In the 1995-96 season he was the centre point of the 'Carte Blanche' series in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. He is involved in the organization of the series 'Contemporaries' at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
He is a regular guest in most European countries (France, Germany - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra - England, Belgium) and the United States (Tanglewood Festival, New World Symphony, Lincoln Center Chamber Music Group New York, Aspen and the St. Paul’s Chamber Orchestra in Minneapolis, and lectures at the Juilliard School of Music in New York), Japan and Australia.
Reinbert de Leeuw has been involved in various opera productions at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam as well as with the Nederlandse Reisopera. Productions include works by Strawinsky (a.o. The Rake’s progress), Andriessen (Rosa - A Horse Drama, Writing to Vermeer) Ligeti (Le Grand Macabre), Vivier (Rêves d’un Marco Polo), Rob Zuiddam’s opera ‘Rage d‘Amours’ and Benjamin Britten “The Turn of the Screw”.
He was in 1992 guest artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival and from 1994–1998 artistic director of Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. De Leeuw was artistic advisor for contemporary music with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and from 2001 to 2010 he served as artistic leader at the Nederlandse Orkest- en Ensemble-Academie (NJO; Dutch Orchestra and Ensemble Academy).
Awards :
Sikkenprijs (1991), 3M-Muzieklaureaat (1992), Edison Music Award (1994), Edison Classical Music Award (2002), Ridder in de Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw (2008), Edison Oeuvreprijs (2013).
