Biography

Berend Eijkhout (1989) is a versatile singer who, in his still-young career, has collaborated with a wide variety of ensembles. He recently made his role debut as Pandolfe in Massenet’s Cendrillon. This season, he returns to Dutch National Opera for Een Lied voor de Maan, presents a song program with pianist Maurice Lammerts van Bueren, and sings concerts with Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht and the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra.

After his training at the Royal Conservatory, where he studied with Frans Fiselier and Gerda van Zelm, Berend continued his studies with Nadine Secunde and Peter Lockwood. He now studies with Marcel Boone. Additionally, Berend has taken lessons and masterclasses with Roberta Alexander, Luca Pisaroni, Hans Pieter Herman, and Margreet Honig.

On the opera stage, he has appeared as Papageno (The Magic Flute, Mozart), Masetto (Don Giovanni, Mozart), Il Conte (Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart), Ramiro (L’Heure Espagnole, Ravel), and in operas by Weill, Monteverdi, and Gluck. This past summer, he performed the role of Pandolfe in Massenet’s Cendrillon at the Trentino Music Festival. Berend has also performed in many newly composed operas, including All Rise! and De Synode by Jan-Peter de Graaff, Who’s Afraid of Orfeo by Chiel Meijering, and Mariken in the Garden of Delights by Calliope Tsoupaki.

In addition to traditional opera, Berend enjoys performing in children's shows and music theatre. This season, he will again be heard at Dutch National Opera and Opera Zuid as Grasshopper and Earthworm in Een Lied voor de Maan by Mathilde Wantenaar. He recently performed with Holland Opera in Odiezee by Anne-Maartje Lemereis, and he toured as Papageno in the children’s show The Magic Flute, with texts and direction by Frank Groothof. Last season, he performed with pianist Jeroen Sarphati and three other singers in a combined production of Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor and Salieri’s Prima la Musica e poi le Parole, and he toured with Camerata Trajectina in a theatrical program about the disaster year 1672.

Berend’s extensive concert repertoire includes major works such as Bach’s Passions, Weihnachtsoratorium, and Hohe Messe, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s The Creation and The Seasons, Mozart’s Requiem, Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem, Fauré’s Requiem, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah and St. Paul. He has worked as a soloist with conductors such as Daniel Reuss, the late Kenneth Montgomery, Ton Koopman, Antony Hermus, Marcus Creed, Jos van Veldhoven, and ensembles including the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Pynarello, Phion, and Cappella Amsterdam.

As a song recitalist, Berend enjoys exploring new concert formats. For the Grachtenfestival, he performed a theatrical song recital on Vuurtoreneiland, off the coast of Durgerdam, and he created an interdisciplinary Schubert evening with pianist Daan Boertien and cartoonist Floor de Goede. This season, he will be heard with pianist Maurice Lammerts van Bueren in Im trüben Licht, a program featuring fairy tales and fables by French and German composers.

Berend is a valued interpreter of contemporary music, appreciated by both composers and audiences. Recent projects include a CD recording of Tsoupaki with bass clarinetist Fie Schouten, and the premiere of Kris Oelbrandt’s Peace Cantata, for chamber choir, cellist Quirine Viersen, and solo baritone.