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Patrick Pranger is a Dutch baritone and choral conductor. His story began to take shape after he tried a couple of studies and completed his military service. He followed his heart and after a number of singing lessons, he registered at the Prince Claus Conservatoire. Wout Oosterkamp and Sasja Hunnego took him under their wing and taught him to love singing. He obtainded his Bachelor of Music degree in Singing from thre Prins Claus Conservatorium in Groningen (1996-2003). Besides the conservatory he also started conducting. He tried to follow the lessons of Louis Buskens as much as possible, although he was not registered as a management student. After a few years he moved to The Hague and took lessons at the Royal Conservatoire. A world opened up for him. Baroque music in historical performance practice, opera and master-classes by fantastic singers. After a long-lasting injury to his vocal cords, he lost the love for singing. He did, with the help of Sasja Hunnego and Gerda van Zelm, finish his singing studies in 2003, but immediately went on to study choral conducting at the Royal Conservatoire. Jos van Veldhoven and Jos Vermunt were his teachers. He obtained his Bachelor of Music degree in Conducting from the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag (2003-2007).
Jos Vermunt was the teacher who helped him find the right path to become a professional conductor and craftsman. In 2006 he was the only Dutch person selected to attend a prestigious Masterclass in Sweden. Here he had the opportunity to work with the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, Ars Nova Copenhagen and the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. They were taught by Andrew Parrott, Cecilia Rydinger Alin and éminence grise of the choral world; Eric Ericson. Two years later he was the only Dutch person who was allowed to participate in the Masterclass of the Choral Biennale in Haarlem. The Groot Omroepkoor and the Nederlands Kamerkoor were the practice choirs and they were taught by Simon Halsey and Robert Sund. In the same year he graduated from the Royal Conservatoire with a performance of J.S. Bach's Johannes-Passion (BWV 245) with a Baroque orchestra and a choir of 16 singers and a grand acapella concerto with three choirs. For this exam he was allowed to give Patrick van Deurzen a composition assignment. He wrote Wahnbrot, a cycle of acapella choral songs set to texts by Paul Celan.
One of the greatest virtues of his profession is that we never learned everything. In recent years he has developed as a conductor trying to convey his love for text and music to the audience. After all, it is about the story to be told of a lyricist and composer! His basic tool is and remains the voice. How do you use that voice to tell the story, how do you use your skills in the ensemble to bring the story to the fore as a team.
The love to tell stories with my own voice has blossomed again in recent years. He is coached in this by Jan Willem Westerhuis. In 2018 he sang his first opera production outside the conservatory and it was fantastic. That's why he made the choice to focus more on singing solo than conducting. Nevertheless, he still enjoys conducting the Vocaal Ensemble Sonante Vocale (oratorio choir, Amersfoort) and Chordiality (project choir, The Hague). In addition, he is increasingly allowed to act as a guest conductor.
Patrick Pranger has served as Conductor of Koorbiënale Haarlems (2007); Conductor of Voix Jolies (2008); Cantor of Nieuwe Badkapel in Scheveningen (January 2010-November 2016); Conductor of Corps d’Esprit in Rotterdam (October 2004-November 2018); Conductor of Oratoriumkoor Alphen in Oratoriumkoor Alphen in Provincie Zuid-Holland (Sepember 2014-May 2019); Koor-coordinator of Theateralliantie in Amsterdam (March-November 2019); Artistic Director of MatrozenkoorHaags (July 2019- December 2020); Conductor of VE Sonante Vocale in Amersfoort (since December 2008); Artistic Director of Vocal Ensemble Chordiality in Debn Haag (since March 2017). He currently lives in The Hague, the Netherlands. |
