André de Ridder is the Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of Theater Freiburg and designated Music Director of both English National Opera and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, titles he will assume from September 2027. He is in demand internationally for his impressive stylistic versatility, from baroque to contemporary music. His projects and collaborations take him to orchestras such as New York Philharmonic, Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Tonhalle Zurich, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and Concertgebouworkest.
Over the course of the 2025/26 season, de Ridder will conduct titles such as Doctor Atomic, Iphigénie en Tauride and The Loser at the Theater Freiburg, and Mahagonny at the English National Opera.
De Ridder will also make guest appearances with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Belgian National Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra Dublin, The Hallé, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He curates and performs at Oulu Festival and continues his curatorship of Unclassified Live at London’s Southbank Centre, a series of genre-defying performances featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra.
The ‘livewire conductor’ (The Times) has formed close relationships with some of the most prominent opera composers of our generation, including Michel van der Aa, Daníel Bjarnason, Nico Muhly and Kaija Saariaho. De Ridder also recently performed repertoire works such as Bluebeard’s Castle (Philharmonia Orchestra) and Scenes from Goethe’s Faust by Schumann (Staatstheater Stuttgart), collaborating with directors such as Kasper Holten, Barrie Kosky and Enda Walsh. He made his debut at Oper Köln in performances of Der Meister und Margarita by York Höller.
De Ridder is an Artistic Director and co-founder of s t a r g a z e, performing projects ranging from Bach to avant-garde electronics, and contemporary classical music. The group has gained a significant following and is regularly invited by leading concert halls, including the Barbican Centre London, the Kölner Philharmonie, Philharmonie de Paris and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.
De Ridder’s discography includes an album of orchestral music by Bryce Dessner and Jonny Greenwood and the hugely successful Four Seasons Recomposed by Max Richter, both for Deutsche Grammophon. The Max Richter recording was awarded an ECHO Klassik Classic Without Borders award and has topped the classical charts in over twenty countries. For Transgressive Records, De Ridder also acted as producer on the release of Africa Express Presents: In C Mali. This followed a trip to Bamako, Mali, with Damon Albarn and his Africa Express project. In Mali, de Ridder initiated and led a recording of Riley’s In C with local musicians, joined by travelling Western artists, including Brian Eno and Damon Albarn.
De Ridder was Artistic Director of Musica Nova Helsinki 2017–2021, and in 2018 was the recipient of a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for his innovative work as Artistic Curator of London’s Spitalfields Festival.