Ed Spanjaard

Spanjaard conducts operas (over 50) and orchestral repertoire as well as contemporary music. His farewell concert after 12 years as conductor of the Limburg Symphony Orchestra in 2012 featured Debussy's rarely performed Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien, with a new text by Ramsey Nasr and choreography by Toer van Schayk. He is the musical director of the Nieuw Ensemble, which premiered a new Chinese opera, Sifan, at the 2015 Holland Festival, a work closely associated with Sichuan tradition. Film director-producer Frank Scheffer made a full-length film about this project. At the Nationale Reisopera, Spanjaard conducted a highly successful staging of Wagner's Ring cycle and he kicked off 2016 with performances of Der Fliegende Holländer at Essen's Aalto Theatre. 

Spanjaard teaches at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.