Conductor – Gerrit Maas
Gerrit Maas is a skilled choir and orchestra conductor. He studied musicology at Utrecht University and orchestral conducting with Lucas Vis at the conservatoire in Amsterdam. He also took executive classes with Jos Vermunt & Johan Rooze, and master classes with Helmuth Rilling, Georg Grün, and Jorma Panula, to name a few.
Gerrit Maas made his debut as conductor at the age of seventeen when he conducted a school performance of Mozart’s Zauberflöte. In 2009, he completed his studies at the conservatoire with two versions of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. His repertoire contains many of the major oratorios, such as Joshua by Händel and Orff’s Carmina Burana. He has performed numerous requiems, including those by Mozart, Fauré, Verdi, Saint-Saëns, and Duruflé, in collaboration with musicology students from Utrecht University. Furthermore, Johann Sebastian Bach’s music has a special spot in Gerrit’s career. In addition to the monthly cantata services in Utrecht, he has led performances of Bach’s Hohe Messe, the Johannespassion, the Matthäuspassion, and the Weihnachtsoratorium, with various choirs and orchestras as well as his reconstruction of the Markus Passion which premiered in 2013. In addition to the major works for large choirs, Gerrit Maas likes to work on smaller pieces written for chamber choirs. Renaissance music and more recent music from the Slavic language area and the Baltic states are of particular interest.
In addition to his position as choral conductor of CM, Gerrit Maas is the permanent conductor of the Domstad Youth Orchestra, Vocal Ensemble Kwartz in Haarlem and the Christian Oratory Association Zaanstreek. He is also conductor of the Utrecht Bach cantata services in the Geertekerk and frequently active as a continuo player.