Michiel van Vliet (1982) is an all-round professional conductor and music director from Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He knows how to transmit his love, respect and knowledge of the score to musicians and audiences with stimulating energy. With his efficient and friendly way of working and sound knowledge, he creates an atmosphere in which orchestra and soloists can excel.
Michiel is music director of community symphony orchestra’s in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam and Gorinchem, two prof. ensembles in baroque and contemporary music and a youth orchestra. Due to his efficiency, profound knowledge en musicality he is a frequently asked guest conductor in many divers projects.
He graduated his Bachelor degree with honors for classical percussion and conducting. During his classical percussion study he won several auditions which enabled him to work with conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, sir Simon Rattle, Valery Gergiev and Jaap van Zweden. He followed minors in violin, cello, clarinet, bassoon, trombone, piano, jazz and world music. At he University of Utrecht he studied musicology and Leadership in Culture. In the last program he is now a teacher at the University in non verbal communication.
As percussion soloist he has worked in many different projects from modern dance to chamber opera productions. For his thrilling performance of Psappha by I. Xenakis he has won the award for best performance during the IT festival 2005 for contemporary music.
He has travelled the world to participate in conducting masterclasses. He participated in masterclasses by Bernard Haitink, Jorma Panula, Johannes Schlaefli, Neil Thomson, John Farrer, Tilo Lehman and many more.
In 2011 he won the first price with honours, the orchestra award and the public award in the international competition for conducting Debrecen Hungary with in the finale Symphony No. 6 ’Pathetique’ by P.I. Tchaikovsky. In 2015 he won the public award in an international competition for conducting in London with in the final Symphony No. 5 by L.v. Beethoven. And by conducting Le Sacre du Printemps by I. Stravinsky, he was selected for the final rounds of the Concours international de jeunes chefs d'orchestre Besancon 2015. In march 2020 he was voted winner of the Denver International Conducting Competition.
Due to this successes he has been asked to conduct several international projects and he has been awarded scolarships by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, het Fonds Podiumkunst and the Kersjes Fonds.
Because of his love for music he is a frequently asked lector on the topics art, classical music and conducting.