Siebens, Etienne
studied conducting with Lucas Vis, Hiroyuki Iwaki, and Jorma Panula. From 1992 to 2008 he was the founder and artistic leader and concert director of the Prometheus Ensemble, with which he performed notably at the Flanders Festival, Musica Strasbourg, Octobre en Normandie, Convent Garden Festival, and Académies Musicales de Saintes. In 2001 he was appointed permanent guest conductor of the Flemish Radio Orchestra, and in 2004–10 was chief conductor of the Flemish Symphony Orchestra.
In 2002 he successfully conducted the Holland Festival production of Karkas by De Bondt. The Amsterdam Sinfonietta invited him to perform in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. In 2013 he conducted at the prestigious opera festival in Aix-en-Provence and made a tour through Europe. In 2014 he premiered a new opera by Martijn Padding at The Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam. He was artist in residence with the Solisti del Veneto and holds the position of permanent guest conductor of Asko|Schönberg.
He also gave a series of concerts together with the Nederlands Blazersensemble (performing Andriessen's De Staat), Asko|Schönberg (Harrison Birtwistle’s Theseus Game at the Concertgebouw), Klangforum Wien (at the Festival Wien Modern), Rotterdam Philharmonic, The Hague Philharmonic, Psappha Ensemble, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Dutch Radio Chamber, Dutch Radio Symphony, Flanders Symphony, Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen, Ghent’s Collegium Vocale, and the Netherlands Philharmonic.
Other career highlights include the world premiere of Gesualdo Considered as a Murderer by Luca Francesconi and CD recordings with The Hague Philharmonic, Klangforum Wien, Flemish Symphony Orchestra (a four-CD box of live performances), Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra (music of Michael van der Aa), and Asko|Schönberg (with the work of Martijn Padding).
He has worked with soloists such as Lisa Hannigan, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, José van Dam, Christianne Stotijn, Quirine Viersen, Frank Braley, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Claron McFadden, and Pieter Wispelwey. He has also worked very closely with composers such as Maurico Kagel, György Kurtág, Peter Eötvös, Luca Francesconi, Michel Van der Aa, Louis Andriessen, Harisson Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies, and Philippe Boesmans.