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The Dutch conductor and pedagogue, Joop Schets, studied church music, organ, piano and choir directing at the Conservatorium of Rotterdam with Adriaan C. Schuurman, Elly Salomé en Jan Eelkema. Following his formal studies, Joop Schets took international conducting courses with the famous German choral conductor Kurt Thomas. Enthusiastic for the young talent, the noted professor Kurt Thomas gave him private lessons for about a year. He also studied with Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden. During his studies he has mastered a wide repertoire, from chamber music to the great oratorios.
Joop Schets directed the choir COV Sursum Corda in Rotterdam from 1974 to 2003, and each year they performed the Messiah by George Frideric Handel. The choir also sang under his direction oratorios as Die Schöpfung and Die Jahreszeiten by J. Haydn, Christus am Ölberg by L.v. Beethoven and modern compositions as Symphonie des Psaumes by Igor Stravinsky and Requiem by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Joop Schets is the conductor of the Toonkunstkoor Arnhem. Each year they perform Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) by J.S. Bach. They also sing other major choral works, such as Stabat Mater and Gloria by Francis Poulenc, War Requiem by Benjamin Britten, Cantate de Noël by Arthur Honegger, Carmina Burana by C. Orff. They are regularly joined by Het Gelders Orkest.
With the Bachkoor Apeldoorn, Joop Schets performed works by G.F. Handel, J.S. Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, G. Verdi, A. Honegger, Heinz Werner Zimmermann and Helmut Barbe. In November 2002 they performed with great success the modern oratorio Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln by Franz Schmidt at the Grote Kerk in Apeldoorn.
Joop Schets functions as adjunct-director and co-ordinator at the Conservatorium of Arnhem since 1991. His activities, particularly as choir director, were honoured in 1997 by the Minister of Onderwijs, Cultuur and Wetenschappen. He established the Hogeschool Gorinchem IDE (Instituut Dirigenten Educatie), a unique conservatory in Holland for the studies of choir directing, church music, (singing and organ) and solo singing.
Joop Schets gives seminars for choir conducting in Paramaribo (Suriname), at the Kabinet of Nederlands-Antilliaanse and in Arubaanse. From 1992 to 1999 he directed choir and conducted in Curaçao (Nederlandse Antillen). In August 2000 he gave master-class for choir conducting with the Drakensberg Boys' Choir in Drakensbergen of South Africa. He was guest conductor of the festival KUESTA in the South African University Choir of Johannesburg and worked with the choir of Potchefstroomse University. He leads yearly "reading-sessions" for conducting and choir directing with both traditional and new repertoire, transferring his knowledge and experience and performance-practice to the younger generation. In the Dutch choir institute "Vox Neerlandica" he gives workshops for choir directing.
Joop Schets is a renowned figure in the international choir world and has directed many choirs on the international scene. |
