Louwrens Langevoort
Artistic and managing director and CEO of KölnMusik GmbH
Following completion of his law studies in 1981, Louwrens Langevoort began his professional career as artistic PR manager, before assuming the post of director of the department of artistic management at the Brussels Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie under Gerard Mortier. After heading up Arts and Repertoire for one year at Philips Classics, he was appointed director of the artistic management department at the Salzburg Festival. In 1991 he became director of artistic production at the Leipzig Opera House, before switching to the post of head of artistic management at the City of Cologne Opera House in 1993. In 1994 Louwrens Langevoort was appointed Intendant, then in 1995 managing director of the Dutch National Reisopera. Backed by state subsidies totalling 5.6 million euro, he set about reorganising the opera company, introducing a repertoire of between six to eight productions and staging some 90 performances across the major Dutch cities each season. With the opening of the 2000/2001 season, Louwrens Langevoort took up the position as managing and artistic director of the Hamburg State Opera. Providing the house with new artistic impulses and direction, he continued the successful tradition of the Hamburg Opera: The key programmatic highlights of his tenure lay in championing modern opera and reviving old works. In addition to nurturing the repertoire, Louwrens Langevoort also staged the highly successful cycle of Baroque operas in 2001, developed the children‘s opera series "Opera piccola" and promoted young talent with the International Opera Studio and budding young composers as part of the Composers’ Workshop, which he launched in 2001. In 2004 and 2005, Louwrens Langevoort also served as consultant to the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin.
Louwrens Langevoort took up his posts as Intendant of the Kölner Philharmonie, CEO of KölnMusik GmbH and General Artistic Director of the EIGHT BRIDGES | Music for Cologne festival at the start of the 2005/2006 season. His objective is to maintain and further enhance the musical output of the Kölner Philharmonie, whose quality and diversity are internationally recognised. Through projects like PhilharmonieLunch, PhilharmonieVeedel and philharmonie.tv, he has succeeded in attracting sought-after audience segments such as young professionals and young families, offering them special, tailor-made events inside and outside the concert hall.
Thanks to Langevoort's unrelenting commitment, Cologne has gained a new annual festival. After the Cologne MusikTriennale came to an end in 2010, the EIGHT BRIDGES | Music for Cologne festival, which celebrates modern music, has been staged every year since 2011 at the beginning of May.
In December 2018 Langevoort's contract as Intendant of the Kölner Philharmonie was extended for a third time, enabling him to help shape and be part of Cologne's musical life until the end of July 2025.
Moreover Langevoort initiated a festival dedicated to historically informed performance: During the FEL!X festival at the beginning of each season musicians perform compositions from the early music to the contemporary and play it like it was intended to be played by the composer, using original instruments.