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.
Cécile sang the most diverse operatic roles including La Messagiera and Proserpina in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and Speranza at the Teatro Liceu, Barcelona; Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice with Scottish Opera; Iphigénie en Tauride at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte for L'Opéra National de Paris; Rossweisse in the Walküre with Dutch National Opera, Erda in Das Rheingold during the Rheingold tour on the Rhine. Sesto in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito in Palma de Mallorca, the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas at L'Opéra de Lausanne, the title role in Rossini's La Cenerentola in Kaiserslautern and Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia in London. The title role in Vivaldi's Juditha Triumphans in San Francisco and the roles of Mother/Mrs. Lincoln in Glass' opera The Civil Wars at the Holland Festival with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Glanert's new opera Caligula at the Saturday Matinee in Het Concertgebouw.
She has also sung many Handel roles including Second harlot and Queen of Sheba in Solomon with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Israel; as Cyrus in Handel's Belshazzar in San Francisco, Tauride in Arianna in Creta, Goffredo in Rinaldo at the Handel Festspiele in Göttingen; La Ressurrezione in New York, Irene in Atalanta in San Francisco; the title role in Tamerlano, Cornelia in Giulio Cesare with Opera Ireland and Medea in Teseo in London.
Cécile also has an extensive concert and oratorio repertoire such as Bach's St Matthew Passion with the Residentie Orkest conducted by John Nelson, Hohe Messe with Jordi Savall in Cuenca and Christmas Oratorio with the Combattimento Consort conducted by Jan Willem de Vriend, Händels Messiah conducted by Geronteshius. with RTE in Dublin, Mahlers Kindertotenlieder conducted by Neeme Järvi and Rückertlieder with Holland Symfonia.
She has also worked with conductors such as Ivor Bolton, Frans Brüggen, Michael Schønwandt, Laurence Cummings, Claus Peter Flor, Nicholas McGegan, Armin Jordan, Raymond Leppard, Kenneth Montgommery, Lawrence Renes, Edo de Waart, Jaap van Zweden and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Recent highlights include Beethoven 9 with the South Netherlands Philharmonic; Rihm Deus Passus in the Friday of Vredenburg with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra; Mahler's Third Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde with the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph-Matthias Mueller; St Matthew Passion conducted by Reinhard Goebel; performances by G.F. Handel's Atalanta in the United States (Caramoor Festival, NY) with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra; and Richard Strauss Elektra (conducted by Markus Stenz) in the Concertgebouw Saturday matinee
In recent seasons she could be heard in Mussorgsky Boris Godunov (conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado) in the NTR Saturday Matinee, Concertgebouw Amsterdam as well as Aux Bordes du Fleuve van Roussel and she was asked for various operas at the Opera of Basel in Switzerland in Le vin herbé. (Mère d'Iseut) by Frank Martin and in Peter Grimes (Mrs Sedley) by Britten. She also performed in the Matthaus Passion with the Noord Nederlands Orkest conducted by Reinhard Goebel.