 Hans Vercauteren (°1990) studied composition with Wim Henderickx and attained his master’s degree magna cum laude in 2013 at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, where he also studied orchestral conducting with Ivo Venkov and Koen Kessels.In 2018 he completed an Artist Diploma course in composition at the Royal College of Music (London), supervised by Kenneth Hesketh, Jonathan Cole and Errollyn Wallen. He was also an RCM Award Holder supported by a Musicians' Company Lambert Studentship.
As a composer Hans is a Worshipful Musicians' Company Yeoman and was an LSO Soundhub Associate from 2017 till 2019. His professional debut as a composer came in 2012 with "Ich glaub nicht", an orchestral song commissioned by the Chamber Orchestra of Belgium. This initial collaboration sparked a strong and lasting relationship with the orchestra, both as a composer and conductor. Notably, in 2014 he composed the tune A choice in honor of their new name, Casco Phil, premiered during a live broadcast of the Belgian television program De Zevende Dag. In 2021, they premièred his orchestral fantasia Reinaert for soprano Hanne Roos and orchestra.
Hans's compositional focus lies predominantly in music for theatre, spanning from contemporary opera to theater song cycles. He has created new opera productions at the Tête-à-tête opera festival in both 2020 and 2021 and is set to return in 2023 with "ARTHUR," a new Arthurian music theater. Together with his partner, composer Lente Verelst, he founded a small production company Story Tree, dedicated to producing music for music theater, opera, films, and dance. A recent project was their concertfilm/music theatre, in co-production with Evil-Penguin Tv of Guide to the Lakes, a dramatized travel guide after William Wordsworth’s book, performed in the Hendrik Conscience Library. For Musica, Impuls centre for music, they created "IGLO," an interactive performance for children aged 0-5 and their parents.
As a conductor Hans made his professional conducting debut with Casco Phil in December 2016, leading the Concert for Peace and was invited again later to conduct concerts with them in Tilburg (the Netherlands). He has been having a strong connection with them ever since.
In London he was voted the new principal conductor (in 2018) of the SU Film Orchestra at the Royal College of Music where he lead an operatic “Bernstein” celebration show in the RCM Britten Theatre. Appointed by the Kask Royal Conservatory of Ghent, he conducted two series of Benjamin Britten’s complete Turn of the Screw, with director Gidon Saks.
As a conductor, he also thrives in theatre. Together with actor Bob Snijers he made new (Dutch) versions for the complete incidental music to both Peer Gynt by E. Grieg and L’Arlésienne by G. Bizet.
Hans is a regularly asked orchestrator and arranger. He writes for many different kinds of forces but is particularly recognized for his work in ballet. In the past years he has had different commissions by The Royal Ballet (Covent Garden), Swedish Royal Opera and Birmingham Royal Ballet. One of his most extensive orchestrations to date involves a complete reworking of Minkus' "Don Quixote" for BRB, developed in close collaboration with Carlos Acosta.
To compliment the different parts of his career, Hans works as a session producer/music supervisor during recordings by Motormusic.
He frequently directs recordings with The Flemish Radio Choir and Brussels Philharmonic.Other esteemed artists and ensembles include Hermes Ensemble, Casco Phil, Astoria, The National Orchestra of Belgium, Opera Ballet Flanders, The Flanders Symphony Orchestra and other acclaimed soloists (Pieter Wispelwey, Jozef De Beenhouwer,…).
For several years now he is a member of the Artistic Council of Music at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp.
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