|
Belgian counter-tenor, Jonathan De Ceuster, started vocal studies at the age of 10 with baritone Pascal Devreese. He studied concert-and opera singing with Marcel Vanaud, Pascal Devreese, Annie Frantz and Céline Scheen at the Conservatoire of Music in Brussels from 2000 to 2002.
Jonathan De Ceuster has been a soloist of the Flemish Youth Opera from 1994 to 1996. Operatic roles include: Spirit in Dido & Aeneas (Purcell), Cupid in Venus & Adonis (Blow) and La Musica in Orfeo (Monteverdi), Chorus in Acteon (Charpentier) and in The Tempest (Purcell) in productions of Mallemuze and Theater Transparant. In 2001, he was cast as Oberon in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream during a training project of the opera studio of La Monnaie in Brussels. He is also a member of the World Youth Choir, with whom he toured in Venezuela, Belgium, France, Italy, USA, Israel, South-Korea and Japan.
In 2002, Jonathan De Ceuster started specializing in Baroque singing at the Conservatoire National de Region in Metz, France with Monique Zanetti and Andrea Buchel. He obtained a degree in Opera Singing in 2001, a degree in Concert Singing and Chamber Music in 2002 and a Higher Diploma in opera singing in 2003 at the Conservatoire of Brussels. He has been accepted at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music, London where he studied from 2002 to 2004 with David Lowe. He obtained a Postgraduate Diploma with distinction and was awarded a DipRam from the Royal Academy of Music for his outstanding final recital. In London he had the chance to work with James Bowman, Laurence Cummings, Paul Esswood, Russel Smythe, ... Jonathan also obtained a Masters Degree in 2005 and a Teaching Degree in 2006 at the Royal Flemish Conservatoire in Antwerp. He also participated in master-classes with Andreas Scholl and Michael Chance.
On the choral scene, Jonathan De Ceuster regularly works with several early music (Renaissance and Baroque) ensembles, such as The Nederlandse Bachvereniging (Director: Jos van Veldhoven), La Petite Bande (Director: Sigiswald Kuijken), Akadêmia Ensemble (Director: Françoise Lasserre), Ex Tempore (Director: Florian Heyerick), Currende, Collegium Vocale Gent (Director: Philippe Herreweghe), Amsterdam Baroque Choir (Director: Ton Koopman), CantoLx, Ensemble BachPlus (Director: Bart Naessens), Laudantes Consort, La Lettera Amorosa, Fretwork, Euterpe Baroque Consort (Director: Bart Rodyns), Ricercar Consort (Director: Philippe Pierlot), B'Rock. He has performed worldwide under the baton of Philippe Herreweghe, Ton Koopman, Sigiswald Kuijken, Frieder Bernius, Richard Egarr and many other outstanding conductors.
Jonathan De Ceuster is active in both the opera and music theatre fields and has performed baroque and contemporary operas at the opera houses of Antwerp, Ghent, Düsseldorf, Strasbourg, Geneva and numerous theatres all over Europe. He played the role of Fileno in the opera studio production La Giostra d'amore in La Monnaie directed by Philippe Pierlot and made his debut in the Vlaamse Opera as Niemand in the world premiere of Achilleus (Wim Henderickx) in March 2003. He has been nominated 'most promising singer of the year' in 2003 by the international opera magazine Opernwelt for his part in Achilleus. He did an extensive tour with Drift (Theater Transparant) in 2004 where he played the role of Amor.
In 2005, Jonathan De Ceuster sang the role of Prince Edward in the world premiere of Richard III by Giovanni Battistelli for the Vlaamse Opera, and the European premiere of Men in Tribulation (Theater Transparant, Blindman). In 2006 he performed the European premiere of Jacob Lenz (Theater Transparant, de Singel) and 2nd Witch in Dido and Aeneas (H. Purcell) for the Festival of Flanders' directed by Richard Egarr. In 2007, he sang the role of Guido in the world premiere of Intra Muros (Theater Transparant, Blindman) and the role of Prince Edward in Richard III (G. Battistelli) for the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Dusseldorf, Germany).
In 2008, Jonathan De Ceuster sang an Agricola concert with Fretwork, the role of Ruggiero in the production Villa Vivaldi for the Opera of Flanders and Theater Transparant. In 2009, he sang the revival of Richard III for the Opéra National du Rhin (Strassbourg-France), Les Leçons de Ténèbres with Gérard Lesne, 26 Elegies (Birtwistle) in the Festival delle Crete Senesi (Director: Philippe Herreweghe), King Arthur with Barokopera Amsterdam, the dance performance Ashes with Les Ballets C de la B etc... 2010 was filled with oratorios where J.S. Bach and Christoph Graupner were the main focus. In 2011, he Jonathan participated in the famous production Bloed & rozen (Tom Lannoye - Guy Cassiers - Dominique Pauwels) with Collegium Vocale Gent. The next year (2012) he made his debut in Grand Théâtre de Genève as Prince Edward Richard III by Giovanni Battistelli.|
Jonathan De Ceuster has sang the world premières of HRZSCHMRZ (S. Verstockt), and JJR (P. Phénelon). |
