Biography

Berend Eijkhout (1989) is a versatile singer who, despite his young career, has collaborated with a wide variety of companies. This season, he is performing in an opera about Alma Mahler, singing in a staged version of the_ St. Matthew Passion_, and making his debut in Verdi's_ Requiem_.

After completing his training at the Royal Conservatoire, where he studied with Frans Fiselier and Gerda van Zelm, Berend continued his studies with Nadine Secunde and Peter Lockwood. He is currently being taught by Marcel Boone. Berend has also taken lessons and masterclasses with Roberta Alexander, Luca Pisaroni, Hans Pieter Herman, and Margreet Honig.

On the opera stage, he has appeared in Mozart's operas Die Zauberflöte (Papageno), Le Nozze di Figaro (Il Conte), and Don Giovanni (Masetto). He also played Pandolfe in Cendrillon (Massenet), Ramiro in l'Heure Espagnole (Ravel), Plutone in L'Orfeo (Monteverdi), and roles in Alceste (Gluck) and Down in the Valley (Weill). Berend has also played many roles in 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 de tuin der lusten by Calliope Tsoupaki. This season, he can be seen as Gustav Mahler in De verborgen bladzijde (The Hidden Page), a new opera about Alma Mahler.

In addition to traditional opera, Berend enjoys performing in children's shows and musical theater. He is a regular guest at the Dutch National Opera and Opera Zuid as Sprinkhaan and Aardworm 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 De toverfluit, with texts and direction by Frank Groothof. Previous seasons, 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, Christmas Oratorio, and b-minor Mass, 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 Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, 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. Next season, he will be heard with pianist Maurice Lammerts van Bueren in Au revoir, a program of French art song and chansons.

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.