Born in 1971, conductor André de Ridder received his training in Berlin, Vienna and London. After being artistic director of Musica Nova Helsinki until 2021, de Ridder is currently the designated general music director of Theater Freiburg (from September 2022). His innovative programming and stylistic versatility from baroque to contemporary music have led him to orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Nacional de España, Orchestre de Paris and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also the curator for the performance series "Unclassified Live", based on the BBC Radio 3 programme of the same name, performed at London's Soundbank Centre.
In the fields of opera and music theatre, he has developed close artistic relationships with contemporary composers such as Kaija Saariaho, Daníel Bjarnason and Michel van der Aa. De Ridder has worked with directors such as Barrie Kosky, Peter Sellars, Marco Štorman and Enda Walsh and conducted numerous repertoire works: in 2012 he took over the musical direction of the Monteverdi Trilogy at the Komische Oper Berlin, directed by Barrie Kosky. In 2013 he founded the ideas factory s t a r g a z e, which brings projects from Bach and Beethoven to avant-garde electronics and contemporary music to the stage. In 2015 he released as producer "Africa Express Presents: In C Mali" on Transgressive Records, the recording of which was made during a trip to Bamako, Mali with Damon Albarn and his Africa Express project, where he initiated and produced a new version of Terry Riley's "In C" with local musicians and western guest artists such as Brian Eno and Damon Albarn. In 2020/21 he conducted Gerald Barry's "Alice's Adventures Underground" at the Irish National Opera and, after "Nixon in China", followed a re-invitation from the Staatsoper Stuttgart in 2021/22 to conduct the new production of Schumann's "Faust Scenes". In 2018, de Ridder received the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for his work as artistic curator of London's Spitalfields Festival.
As of May 2022