Biography
Marcel Reijans is one of the leading tenors in the Netherlands. He has been active on national and international stages in opera, oratorio and chamber music since 1990. His repertoire varies from baroque to 21st-century music.
Acclaimed for his lyrical roles in Mozart, Strauss and Wagner, Reijans has been a guest at prominent opera houses around the globe: Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Baden-Baden, Brussels, Antwerp, Geneva, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier, Marseille, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Palermo, Cagliari, Bologna and Luxemburg.
Mr. Reijans commands a diverse and extensive repertoire of 80 operas including the roles of Don José in Carmen, Erik in Der fliegende Holländer, Narraboth in Salome, Matteo in Arabella, Max in Der Freischütz, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Grigory in Boris Godunov, Walther von der Vogelweide in Tannhäuser, Tom Rakewell in The Rake's Progress, Loge in Das Rheingold, Fenton in Falstaff, Chevalier de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites, Le Prince Philippe in Yvonne, Princesse de Bourgogne, Anatol in Vanessa, Camille in Die Lustige Witwe, Candide in Candide, Andres in Wozzeck, Kudrias in Kát'a Kabanova, Paris in King Priam, Tristan in Le vin herbé, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and Ferrando in Così fan tutte.
His concert engagements have included performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, NDR Sinfonieorchester, Concerto Köln, Göteborgs Symfoniker and Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg.
Mr. Reijans has worked with numerous conductors including Yves Abel, Marc Albrecht, Daniel Barenboim, Bertrand de Billy, Frans Brüggen, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph Eschenbach, Peter Eötvös, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Hartmut Haenchen, Thomas Hengelbrock, René Jacobs, Philippe Jordan, Ton Koopman, Sir Simon Rattle, Seiji Ozawa, Edo de Waart, Simone Young and Jaap van Zweden.
In the Netherlands, Mr. Reijans has worked with all major professional orchestras: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Het Gelders Orkest, Orkest van het Oosten, Philharmonie Zuidnederland and Noord Nederlands Orkest. He has also sung many roles at the Dutch National Opera, the Nederlandse Reisopera, Opera Zuid and the NTR ZaterdagMatinee.
On the concert stage his repertoire is very extensive. Highlights have included Mahler's Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven), Elias, Paulus and Die erste Walpurgisnacht (Mendelssohn), Faust Symphony (Liszt), Requiem (Verdi), and Das Lied von der Erde (Mahler). He has also performed Höhe Messe and arias and evangelist in St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion (Bach), Messiah and La Resurrezione (Händel), Requiem, Krönungsmesse and Der Messias (Mozart), Die Schöpfung (Haydn), Petite Messe Solennelle (Rossini), L'Enfance du Christ (Berlioz), Messa di Gloria (Puccini), Te Deum (Bruckner), The Bells (Rachmaninov), Serenade for Tenor and Horn (Britten) and A child of our time (Tippett).
After completing his studies in political science and communication science, Reijans’ formative years as a singer were in Amsterdam at the Sweelinck Conservatorium from 1990 to 1994, in Philadelphia at the Curtis Institute of Music (where he earned his Master of Music Degree in Opera), and in San Francisco as a Young Artist of the Merola Opera Program in the summer of 1996. He won first prize in the Cristina Deutekom Concours in the same year and represented the Netherlands at the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 1997.
In addition to an extensive solo career, Marcel Reijans founded Dutch ensemble Frommermann in 2005. This group of five singers, a pianist and a guitarist performs a wide variety of music ranging from Schubert and cabaret songs from the interbellum to modern popular songs. From 2005-2013, Reijans was the managing and artistic director of Frommermann, leading the ensemble to become one of the most well-known Dutch chamber music groups that specialize in light and classical music.
Mr. Reijans is senior teacher and coordinator of the Classical Singing department at the Codarts Conservatory of Rotterdam. In addition, he runs his own private vocal studio: “Studio Fritz”. He has given masterclasses at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, the Peter de Grote Festival and the Orlando Festival, and taught classical singing at the Prins Claus Conservatory in Groningen from 2017-2019.
Marcel Reijans was chairman of the Margreet Honig Foundation (MHF) from 2019-2021. The aim of the foundation is to preserve, support and disseminate the successful pedagogy of the internationally renowned Dutch vocal pedagogue Margreet Honig. All activities organized by MHF are designed to help professional singers and vocal teachers reach the highest level in their art.
