conductor/pianist
Merijn van Driesten: orchestral and choral conductor, pianist, coach and repetiteur for singers and instrumentalists, and piano teacher.
Since 2020, Merijn has lived with his family in the Achterhoek region of the Netherlands. He is a teacher at the Hochschule für Musik Saar in Saarbrücken, and conductor of the Achterhoeks Bachkoor and the Varssevelds Mannenkoor. He has worked with the Nederlandse Reisopera, the Gelderland Opera and Operette Gezelschap, Enka Mannenkoor, among others.
Before returning to the Netherlands, he has lived and worked in Germany for over twenty years, from 2011 to 2020 at the Theater Bielefeld. There he started as a repetiteur and from 2014 as Studienleiter and Kapellmeister. As Studienleiter, he was responsible for the role training of singers and the daily scheduling of rehearsals for singers and pianists. As Kapellmeister he conducted many operas, both his own productions and takeovers, in addition regular children's concerts with the Bielefelder Philharmoniker. In several baroque productions (Handel's Xerxes, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea) he led the orchestra from the harpsichord. As a continuo player, he played oratorios such as Bach's Christmas Oratorio and St. Matthew Passion, Handel's Messiah, Monteverdi's Marian Vespers.
Merijn initially studied piano, with Alan Weiss in Utrecht (Docerend Musicus exam) and with Jan Wijn in Amsterdam (Uitvoerend Musicus exam). After a gap year in California, he worked from 1999 to 2007 as a teacher and member of the leadership team at Musikseminar Hamburg, a private conservatory in Hamburg, Germany. He taught music history, harmony, piano and repetiteur, among other subjects. In 2002, he additionally began studying orchestral conducting at the Musikhochschule Hamburg with Prof. Christof Prick. He finished this study in 2007 with the Diplom Dirigieren, through a concert with the Hamburger Symphoniker. He continued as repetiteur and Kapellmeister at the Schleswig-Holsteinische Landestheater in Flensburg and from 2011 at the Theater Bielefeld.
In 2020, Merijn decided to leave Theater Bielefeld and settled in the Achterhoek. Henceforth, he worked independently as a conductor, pianist and repetiteur. As a pianist, he also performs tango music. In 2024 he was working for several months as a substitute Studienleiter at his former employer Theater Bielefeld. In addition to his musical work, he is a mediator.
