Belgian conductor Dirk Vermeulen is internationally renowned for his interpretation of classical and early romantic music. He is equally at home in early, baroque, and contemporary music, having commissioned and performed many new works.
He studied violin and music theory at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and was concertmaster of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders.
In 1991, he founded Prima La Musica which soon became one of the leading Belgian ensembles. Dirk Vermeulen has been championed by Frans Brüggen, who invited him to conduct several times the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century.
Besides conducting major Belgian orchestras, he has appeared as a guest conductor with prominent orchestras around the globe. He performed in famous concert halls such as Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Vienna, and Philharmonie Berlin.
He has collaborated with many leading soloists such as Maria João Pires, Barbara Hannigan, and Jaap van Zweden as well as with jazz legends such as Toots Thielemans and Wayne Shorter, to name just a few.
Dirk Vermeulen is also a greatly appreciated opera conductor with much affinity for Mozart’s works, conductiong productions of Così fan Tutte, the Magic Flute and Zaide with Prima La Musica, Glucks’ Orphée et Eurydice (Opéra de Rennes), and Le Nozze di Figaro (Opera Zuid).
His discography includes over 30 CDs on EMI, Vanguard Classics, Discover, Eufoda, Et’cetera, Brilliant Classics and Tactus. Recent recordings include Polish works Crimmean Sonnets by Stanislaw Moniuszko and Two Symphonies by Karoli Lipinski.
From 2000 to 2017, he was a professor of chamber music at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.