Cécile van de Sant studied with Cora Canne Meijer at the Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam where she graduated Cum Laude and continued her studies in New York with Marlena Kleinmann Malas.
Recent engagements include among others the title role in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan; Civil Wars by Glass at the Holland Festival; Matthäus Passion with the Residentie Orchestra under Jaap van Zweden; Gluck/Berlioz Orphée with Orchestre des Pays de Savoie on tour in France; Verdi Requiem in Vredenburg Utrecht; Le Marteau sans Maître with Nieuw Ensemble for the 90th Birthday of Pierre Boulez; Alt-Rhapsodie with the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in the Concertgebouw; Berg Sieben frühe Lieder and Der Wein with Göttingen Symphonie Orchester; Wozzeck in the Matinee Series of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam; baroque arias with the Kölner Akademie in Istanbul and the title role in Falco’s oratorio “Santo Antonio” with Europa Galante under Fabio Biondi; Dutch premiere of Rihm Deus Passus and Mahler Symphony no. 3 with Göttingen Symphony Orchestra.
Her operatic roles
include the Messagiera and Proserpina in L’Orfeo
(Monteverdi) with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and Speranza at the Teatro Liceu, Barcelona; Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice (Gluck) with the Scottish
Opera; Iphigénie en Tauride at the
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the Liceu, Barcelona, Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte for Opéra National de
Paris, Rossweisse in Die Walküre at the
Dutch National Opera. Sesto in La
Clemenza di Tito (Mozart) with the Orquestra Sinfónica de Balears in Palma,
the title role of La Cenerentola in Kaiserslautern and Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini) Opera Holland Park in London; Die Zauberflöte and Dido and Aeneas at Opéra de Lausanne. Scipio in Glanert’s Caligula in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam,
Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel (Humperdink) in
Vredenburg Utrecht and with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the
Concertgebouw, Olga in Eugen Onegin
at the Nationale Reisopera and with Opera North; Kate in Owen Wingrave (Britten) at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. She sang
numerous roles in Händel operas including Cyrus in Belshazzar and Irene in Atalanta
with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco; Tauride in Arianna in Creta, Unulfo in Rodelinda, and Goffredo in Rinaldo with the Göttingen Händel
Festival; Second harlot and the Queen of Sheba in Solomon with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra; Cornelia in Giulio Cesare with Opera Ireland; the
title role in Tamerlano in Utrecht
and Amsterdam and Medea in Teseo at
the Britten Theatre in London.
Cécile also performs
extensively in concerts and oratorio such as Bach’s St. Matthew Passion under the baton of John Nelson and Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder under the baton of
Neeme Järvi with the Residentie Orchestra, Bach’s Hohe Messe under Jordi Savall in Cuenca, Händel’s Messiah with the Residentie Orchestra
under Paul McCreesh, Frank Martin’s Die
Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets
Christoph Rilke with Göttinger Symphonie Orchester, Mahler’s Rückertlieder with Holland Symfonia,
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under
Antonello Manacorda, Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium
with the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam under Jan Willem de Vriend, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with RTE in Dublin and the Dutch premiere of Deus Passus by Rihm with the Rotterdams
Philharmonic Orchestra under Marcus Stenz.
She has worked with
conductors including Ivor Bolton, Michael Schønwandt, Laurence Cummings,
Richard Farnes, Claus Peter Flor, Marek Janowski, Armin Jordan, Raymond
Leppard, Nicholas McGegan, Kenneth Montgommery, Arnold Östman, Edo de Waart and
Jaap van Zweden.
Highlights in season 2017-18 are Mahler Das Lied von der Erde with Göttingen Symphony Orchestra; Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Reinhard Goebel; Frank Martin Die Weise von Liebe und Tod, Residentie Orkest The Hague led by Reinbert de Leeuw; Concertgebouw Matinee 1e Magd in Strauss’ Elektra (led by Markus Stenz) and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov (led by Pablo Heras-Casado).
May 2017