Koen Kessels

Kessels made his Royal Ballet debut in 2008 conducting The Nutcracker and has since returned every Season, to conduct a repertory including The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and Symphony in C and the world premieres of Raven Girl, Untouchable, Woolf Works, Frankenstein and Multiverse. He has been Music Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet since 2010, and becomes Music Director of the Dutch National Ballet in August 2024.

Kessels was born in Oostende, Belgium, and studied at the Antwerp Royal Flemish Conservatory of Music. He was appointed Music Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2010. He has guest conducted for such companies as Teatro alla Scala, Teatro dell’ Opera di Roma, Wiener and Bayerisches Staatsballet, Kunliga Operan, deMunt Brussels, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Ballet Opéra National de Paris, Théâtre du Capitole, New York City Ballet, New National Theatre Tokyo, Teatro Real Madrid. 

His ballet repertory includes Le Parc, Coppélia, La Source, Proust, Cinderella, Hurlevent, Hommage à Jerôme Robbins, Giselle, French Program, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Firebird, Jewels, Romeo and Juliet and The Prince of the Pagodas. Opera repertory includes Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin (Antwerp), Hosokawa’s Hanjo (La Monnaie, Brussels) and operas by Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and Britten, among others. 

His ballet repertory includes Coppélia, La Source, Sylvia, Giselle, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, Nutcracker, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Firebird, Petrushka, Apollo, Les Noces, The Rite of Spring, Prodigal Son, Jewels, The Prince of the Pagodas, Hurlevent, Carmina Burana, Proust ou l’Intermittence du Coeur, Hommage à Jerôme Robbins, Two Pigeons, Le Parc, Symphony in C, M Julie, Bolero, La Valse, Suite en Blanc, L’Arlésienne, Fall River Legend, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Winters Tale, After the Rain, Within the Golden Hour and The Judas Tree. He also conducted the world premieres of Psyche, Untouchable, Flight Pattern, Frankenstein, Symphonic Dances, Strapless, Corybantic Games, Raven Girl, Woolf Works, Yugen, Sunyata, Processen, The Dante Project and The Cellist.

Opera repertory includes Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin, Hosokawa’s Hanjo, Cherkaoui and Len's Shell Shock, Wim Henderickx’s De Bekeerlinge  and operas by Mozart, Bizet, Verdi, Puccini, Britten, Maxwell Davies. 

Koen is President of the artistic direction team at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, Honorary Professor at Birmingham University, Artistic Director of Inspiratum and HERMESensemble.