Hans de Vries

bass-baritone

After starting his vocal studies at the Twents Conservatorium with Henk Smit, Hans de Vries continued his studies with Udo Reinemann in Utrecht, where he graduated with distinction as a Performing Musician in 1989. He also took various courses with Hans Hotter, Evalyn Lear, Jekaterina Joffel and Tom Krause. He was selected by Dietrich Fischer Dieskau to follow a special course with him in January 1991. He is currently being coached by James McCray.

Hans won prizes at the Hugo Wolf Competition in Stuttgart and at the Int. Vocalisten Concours in 's-Hertogenbosch.

In the Netherlands, Hans is mostly known as a singer of oratorios and opera concerts. Oratorios in which he can often be heard include Bach's Passions, Handel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's Elias and Paulus, the Requiae by Verdi, Brahms, Mozart, Faure and Dvorak, the Schöpfung and Die Jahreszeiten by Haydn. As a concert singer, he has performed in Belgium, France, Germany and Finland.

He is also a regular guest at VARA matinees and Saturday afternoon concerts in the Concertgebouw and Vredenburg. He also enjoys giving recitals and has worked on various opera productions in the Netherlands, but also in Montpellier, Bordeaux, Metz, Antwerp, Glasgow, the USA, and elsewhere.

His wide vocal range enables him to sing both bass and baritone roles; he has thus sung both Mac Beth and Zaccharia (from Verdi's Mac Beth), Nabucco and Banco (from Verdi's Nabucco), and Rodrigo and Philippo (from Verdi's Don Carlos). In 2015, he sang the lead in Caroline Ansinks' latest opera; Poland in Plan Zuid.

Conductors with whom he worked are: Riccardo Chailly, Edo de Waart, Ingo Metzmacher, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Alain Lombard and many others.