Philippe Herreweghe

Herreweghe founded La Chapelle Royale and Collegium Vocale Gent and is renowned as a conductor, with a repertoire ranging from Renaissance to early Romantic classical music.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt took notice of his musical approach and invited him and the Collegium Vocale Gent to join them in their recordings of the complete Bach cantatas.

During this period, Herreweghe started several other groups and ensembles with whom he made historically appropriate and well-thought-out interpretations of repertoire stretching from the Renaissance to contemporary music.

They include the Ensemble Vocal Européen, specialised in Renaissance polyphony, and the Orchestre des Champs Élysées, founded in 1991 with the aim of playing Classical and Romantic repertoire on original instruments.

Since 2009, Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent have been actively working on the development of a large European-level symphonic choir, at the invitation of the prestigious Accademia Chigiana in Siena and since 2011 with the support of the European Union's Cultural Programme.