With rousing energy and great openness, Bas Wiegers is one of the most exciting conductors of our time. A guest of European symphony orchestras, soloist ensembles, and opera houses, he masterfully spans the spectrum from Baroque to the music of today.
In his second season as Associated Conductor of the Munich Chamber Orchestra, it is this programmatic range which will be expressed – with works ranging from Haydn to Weill and Dutillieux to the premieres of new concertos by Márton Illés and Chaya Czernowin. In the course of the new 2023/24 season, Bas Wiegers will also conduct subscription concerts of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for the first time; he will further make his debut with the Belgian National Orchestra, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (Claudio Abbado Concert) and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.
In his homeland of the Netherlands, Bas Wiegers has worked with all major orchestras. In addition, he has made guest appearances with the SWR Symphony Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Cologne opera, Theatre Bern, Britten Sinfonia, Ensemble Modern and the SWR Vokalensemble. The latest projects with the Klangforum Wien, of which he was principal guest conductor until summer 2022, included AMOPERA - a dystopian ballad staged by Jan Lauwers at the Tyrolean Festspiele Erl, as well as Umbruch with Thomas Hampson on songs by Mahler and Ives.
With open arms previous partners gladly invite Bas Wiegers to return.
He has conducted several times at the the Opéra national de Lorraine (Britten, Mozart), the Klagenfurt Theater (Haas, Sciarrino), and is present at festivals such as November Music, Holland Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Prague Spring Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Aldeburgh Music Festival, Ruhrtriennale, and Acht Brücken in Cologne.
Bas Wiegers is a treasured musical partner for composers such as Georges Aperghis, Georg Friedrich Haas, Helmut Lachenmann, Salvatore Sciarrino, and Rebecca Saunders.
In the context of current projects, Bas Wiegers regularly dives deep into the realm of scores: With his podcast The Treasure Hunt he provides his audience with a personal insight into his work process as a conductor.
Following his musical education in Amsterdam and Freiburg, Bas Wiegers began a successful career as a violinist with an emphasis on early music. In 2009 he was awarded a conducting scholarship from the Kersjes Foundation, and later worked as an assistant to Mariss Jansons and Susanna Mälkki at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, an experience which convinced him to focus entirely on conducting.
