Honorary Conductor

Dirk Brossé

‍An internationally acclaimed conductor and award winning composer, is currently Music Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and Music Director of the Ghent Film Festival. He is also professor of composition and conducting at the School of Arts / Royal Conservatory of Music in his hometown Ghent, Belgium.

Conductor across three continents

Dirk Brossé has guest-conducted many top orchestras, all over the world, among them, the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Vancouver Opera, Opéra de Lyon, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Philharmonic Orchestras of Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Basel, Madrid, Birmingham, Ulster, Liverpool, Glasgow, Stavanger, Goteborg, Prague, Copenhagen, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul, Queensland, St Petersburg, Caracas, Hiroshima, Osaka, Munich, Dublin, Krakow, Budapest, Vancouver, and Los Angeles. In 2008 he made his first appearance at the Royal Albert Hall in London, conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2016 he made his debut at the Carnegie Hall, New York.

Not just conducting

Maestro Brossé is also a highly-regarded, award-winning composer, whose body of some 400 works includes concerti, oratorios, lieder, chamber music and symphonic pieces, as well as scores for cinema, television and stage, such as the Emmy-nominated score for the BBC/HBO series, Parade’s End. Other scores include Prince of Africa, Daens, Sacco & Vanzetti, Tintin, Rembrandt, Ben X, Pauline & Paulette, 14-18 and Scrooge.

Maestro Brossé’s versatility is evident in the works he has composed for age-old instruments from around the world, an enthusiasm that has led him to champion variety in repertoire and to integrate broad cultural traditions in his programmes for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. His Pictures at an Exhibition, inspired by a series of paintings on display in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was commissioned by the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in 2015 and had its world premiere in Perelman Hall, followed by a performance in New York City’s Carnegie Hall.

The champion of film music

Maestro Brossé is a versatile and creative performer with a keen interest in cinematic music; he is an early advocate of bringing movie scores to orchestral venues. He was chosen by John Williams to conduct the Star Wars in Concert World Tour in 2009, the first world tour of its kind. He is also director of The World Soundtrack Academy at the prestigious Ghent Film Festival.

He has made more than 100 CD recordings and has collaborated with world-class artists such as José Van Dam, Barbara Hendricks, Julia Migenes, Claron McFadden, Julian Lloyd Webber, Sabine Meyer, Alison Balsom, Salvatore Accardo, John Williams, Toots Thielemans, Gabriel Yared, Hans Zimmer, Elmer Bernstein, Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, Randy Crawford, Lisa Gerrard, Mel Brooks, Sinead O’ Connor, Maurice Jarre, Michel Legrand, Youssou N’Dour, Marcel Khalifé, John Malkovich. He has worked with directors Stijn Coninx, Frank Van Laecke, Susanna White and Roland Joffé, and with writers Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Seth Gaaikema and Didier Van Cauwelaert.

Honours and accolades

Dirk Brossé has been awarded the title Cultural Ambassador of Flanders, the Flemish Parliament’s Gold Medal for Merit, the Achille Van Acker Prize, the Joseph Plateau Honorary Award and the Global Thinkers Forum Award for Excellence in Cultural Creativity.

In 2013 he was elevated to Belgium’s hereditary nobility, with the personal title of Ridder (Sir). He is a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts and, since 2018, also a Fellow in Arts & Humanities at the Brussels University VUB. His Majesty King Filip of Belgium recently awarded Dirk Brossé the Belgian Monarchy’s highest honour: Commander in the Order of Leopold.

Since 2024 Dirk Brossé is the honorary conductor of Sinfonietta Cracovia.

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