Jos van Immerseel

Jos van Immerseel was born in Antwerp, Belgium and studied piano, organ, singing, harpsichord (with Kenneth Gilbert) and orchestral conducting (with Daniel Sternefeld). In 1973 he won the first Harpsichord Competition in Paris. His widely praised historically informed performances are the result of a constant dialogue between practice, musicological research, in particular his study of rhetoric in music, and the study of musical instruments. Over the years Jos van Immerseel has amassed an impressive collection of historic harpsichords and pianos enabling him to choose the most suitable instrument for a particular performance, which he can also use on concert tours and for recordings. He has received some of the most prestigious awards for his recordings as a soloist, including a Diapason d’Or and Le Choc du Monde de la Musique. Van Immerseel directs master classes in Europe, Japan and the USA and teaches at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris and the Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam. He been a guest conductor with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Wiener Akademie, Musica Florea Prague and many other orchestras. In 1987, Jos van Immerseel founded his own orchestra, Anima Eterna. The orchestra and conductor have made a large number of prize-winning recordings for the Accent, Channel Classics and Sony record labels, and since 2002, for ZigZagTerritoires, Paris.