Louis Buskens
Louis Buskens is the primary teacher of choral conducting at the Fontys Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. He grew up in ’s-Hertogenbosch in the south of The Netherlands, where he was a boy singer in the cathedral choir (a choir specialised in Gregorian chant and renaissance music). At the Conservatory of Tilburg, he majored in recorder performance, music teaching, and choral conducting. After his study, he was conductor of the choir and orchestra of the university of Eindhoven, the Philips Philharmonic Choir in Eindhoven, the Bach Choir in Nijmegen, Nationaal Gemengd Jeugd Koor and, for many years, choirmaster and assistant conductor at the “Opera in Ahoy” in Rotterdam. He also worked extensively abroad, mainly as a choirmaster in opera productions. He prepared choirs for Valery Gergiev, Frans Brüggen, Mauricio Kagel, Jaap van Zweden and many others.
Louis Buskens began as a specialist of early music, but has become more and more sought after to conduct 19th - and 20th century music, thanks to his extensive experience conducting both choral and orchestral works from those eras. Now, he is the chief conductor of several choirs - the Brabant Koor, Nederlands Concert Koor, Noord Nederlands Concert Koor - and teaches choir conducting at two conservatories (Tilburg and Groningen). Several of his students have won the prestigious Dutch Anton Kersjes Prize for conductors. Louis is also teacher of the famous Dutch Kurt Thomas Cursus, a yearly summer course for choral conducting in Utrecht, The Netherlands. For his work as conductor, musician, and advocate for the arts, Louis was knighted by her Majesty the Queen as Knight in the Order of Oranje Nassau.
