Dirk Brossé

Sir Dirk Brossé, an internationally acclaimed conductor and Award-Winning composer, is currently conductor-emeritus of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Artistic Director of Prima La Musica, and music director of The World Soundtrack Academy at Ghent Film Festival. In January 2024, he was appointed as Honorary conductor of Sinfonietta Cracovia. He is also professor of composition and conducting at the School of Arts / Royal Conservatory of Music at his hometown Ghent, Belgium.

He has composed some 1800 works, including concert works, concerti, oratorios, lieder, chamber music and symphonic works. He has also composed extensively for cinema, television and stage. His score for the BBC/HBO series Parade's End was nominated for an Emmy Award. His score for the film Knielen was nominated for Het Gouden Kalf. He wrote the scores for the musicals Prince of Africa, Daens, Sacco & Vanzetti, Tintin, Rembrandt, Ben X, Pauline & Paulette, 14-18, Scrooge and Daens 2.0.

Dirk’s recent score for the documentary Our Nature was nominated for an Ensor Award, for the prestigious International Film Music Critics Awards and won the World Soundtrack Award 2023. In 2010, at the request of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, he wrote The Hallow-e'en Dances. This Halloween-inspired work is especially written for age-old, traditional Chinese instruments. He composed Haiku Cycle 1, written for Jessye Norman and based on Haiku by Herman Van Rompuy, former president of the European Union.

Dirk Brossé has conducted many top orchestras, both at home and abroad. Amongst them, the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Vancouver Opera, Opéra de Lyon, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Philharmonic Orchestras of Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Basel, Madrid, Porto, Birmingham, Ulster, Liverpool, Glasgow, Prague, Bergen, Copenhagen, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul, Queensland, St Petersburg, Caracas, Hiroshima, Osaka, Astana, Munich, Strasbourg, Dublin, Krakau, Budapest, Vancouver, Basel, Goteborg, Stavanger and Los Angeles. 

In 2008 he made his first appearance at the Royal Albert Hall in London, conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2016 he made his debut at the Carnegie Hall New York.

He has made more than 150 CD recordings and has collaborated with world-class artists such as José Van Dam, Barbara Hendricks, Julia Migenes, Claron McFadden, Julian Lloyd Webber, Sabine Meyer, Alison Balsom, Salvatore Accardo, John Williams, Toots Thielemans, Hans Zimmer, Elmer Bernstein, Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, Randy Crawford, Lisa Gerrard, Mel Brooks, Maurane, Sinead O’ Connor, Maurice Jarre, Michel Legrand, Youssou N’Dour, Marcel Khalifé, John Malkovich. He has worked with directors Stijn Coninx, Susanna White, Martin Koolhoven, Sam Sombogaerts, Roland Joffé, and with writers Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Seth Gaaikema and Didier Van Cauwelaert.

Dirk Brossé has been awarded the title Cultural Ambassador of Flanders, the Flemish Parliament’s Gold Medal for Merit, the Achille Van Acker Prize, the Joseph Plateau Honorary Award and the Global Thinkers Forum Award for Excellence in Cultural Creativity. Dirk Brossé is also a voting member of the American Grammy Awards.

In 2010 Dirk Brossé was made an honorary citizen of Destelbergen. In 2013 he was elevated to Belgium’s hereditary nobility, with the personal title of Sir. He is a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. Since 2018, Dirk has been a Fellow in Arts & Humanities at the Brussels University VUB. Recently Dirk received from His Majesty King Philippe of Belgium the highest award from the Belgian Monarchy: Commander in the Order of Leopold. 

The documentary Brossé, a destiny in Music by Jacques Servaes received international acclaim.