Vis Lucas
Born in 1947, he is regarded as a specialist in contemporary music. He has worked with John Cage, Mauricio Kagel, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Theo Loevendie, Louis Andriessen and many others, and has conducted numerous premieres. Lucas Vis conducted the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in performances and recordings of music by Karlheinz Stockhausen (Mixtur, 2008), Emmanuel Nunes (Musivus, 2007), John Cage and others. With Ensemble Recherche he performed I am a Mistakeby Wolfgang Rihm and Jan Fabre in eight European countries (2007). Sphäre um SpäreandFrage, both by Wolfgang Rihm, were recorded in 2005 by Ensemble Recherche and Lucas Vis. With the Arditti Quartet and Ensemble recherche he recorded and performed Funérailles by Brian Ferneyhough (Salzburg Festival 2006). As guest conductor he has worked with the orchestras of the Hessische Rundfunk Frankfurt, Westdeutsche Rundfunk Cologne, Radio Sinfonie Orchester Berlin and others. Lucas Vis began his musical career as a cellist. After winning a prize in a conducting course at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, he increasingly developed as a multifaceted conductor. From 1976 to 1979 he was principal conductor of the Nederlands Ballet Orkest, where he conducted performances of both classical and modern ballet. As a guest conductor he has led many Dutch orchestras, such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Residentie Orchestra, various radio orchestras and several ensembles covering a wide-ranging repertoire. From 1988 to 1996 Lucas Vis was the principal conductor of the Noordhollands Philharmonisch Orkest in Haarlem, where he appeared on the podium conducting works from many different eras. At the Netherlands Opera he has conducted operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giacomo Puccini, Ferruccio Busoni, Bruno Maderna and Giuseppe Verdi, as well as many premieres by such Dutch composers as Otto Ketting, Theo Loevendie and Guus Jansen. While working as an assistant to Bruno Maderna from 1967 to 1973, he was awarded the Koussevitzky Composition Prize in 1971. From 1998 until 2005 he was Principal of the Amsterdam Conservatoire, and since 2003 he has been professor of conducting. At the same time he has been a guest conductor with numerous European orchestras and ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Nieuw Ensemble and Asko Ensemble, as well as leading masterclasses in conducting.
