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Manoj Kamps (Sri Lanka, 1988) held the coveted post of Junior Fellow in Orchestral Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester from 2015-2017. During this time he worked with the BBC Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Hallé Orchestra and Manchester Camerata, studying with Sir Mark Elder, Clark Rundell and Mark Heron.
He conducts the world premiere of Coded Messages: Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman by Hilda Paredes with Muziektheater Transparant and HERMESEensemble in October 2018 featuring Claron McFadden. The performances take place in the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam before transferring to Cervantino Festival in Mexico, Huddersfield International Contemporary Music Festival, Rotterdam Opera Music Days and Lyon. He will also serve as Assistant Conductor for Nederlandse Reisopera production of Korngold’s Die tote Stadt. Future orchestral engagements include performances with the Bruckner Orchester, the Brussels Philharmonic and Chineke Juniors at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.
Manoj has conducted, amongst other things, a new chamber opera Be With Me Now at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, a new production of The Fairy Queen for Dutch Touring Opera, Side by Side at Ulster Orchestra, Carte Blanche featuring music by Vivier with Cappella Amsterdam, Connect with Asko|Schönberg Ensemble and projects with Dutch National Opera Academy, Netherlands Chamber Choir, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Choir, Silbersee/VocaalLAB and Tokyo Telemann Chamber Orchestra.
Contemporary music has always been a cornerstone of Manoj's career and he has conducted premières by Michel van der Aa (The Book of Sand, a digital project created by the composer), Peter Eötvös (Dutch première of da capo with ensemble Ludwig), Karlheinz Stockhausen (Dutch première of Mikrophonie II), Louis Andriessen (first performances of early works, under the composer’s guidance), Rob Zuidam, Boudewijn Tarenskeen, Klaas de Vries and Rodion Shchedrin, at festivals such as the Holland Festival, the AAA Festival of the Royal Concertgebouw, Aldeburgh Festival, November Music, Gaudeamus Festival and Musica Sacra Maastricht.
As an assistant conductor, Manoj has worked with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Konzerthausorchester Berlin (for Iván Fischer), BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (Juanjo Mena), Dutch National Opera (Romain Bischoff), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (Andrew Manze), Prague Symphony Orchestra (Jac van Steen), Rundfunkchor Berlin (Simon Rattle) and the Netherlands Bach Society (Ed Spanjaard). He has also worked for Esa-Pekka Salonen and Sir Andrew Davis.
Manoj was selected to participate in masterclasses with Bernard Haitink (Lucerne Festival), Carlo Rizzi (European Network of Opera Academies), Marc Albrecht (Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra), Simon Halsey (Rundfunkchor Berlin), Juanjo Mena, Vasily Petrenko, Jorma Panula and George Hurst.
Manoj began his music lessons with Sureka Amerasinghe, and is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague, where he studied orchestral conducting (with Jac van Steen and Kenneth Montgomery); composition (with Roderik de Man and Calliope Tsoupaki) and choral conducting (with Jos van Veldhoven and Jos Vermunt), completing the latter with highest honours. He received further professional coaching in choral conducting by Daniel Reuss. He has been supported generously in his studies by the Kersjes Fund for Conductors, the Ars Lunga Foundation and the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.
He is a passionate advocate of music educational projects, having collaborated with the Dutch Radio Music Centre and the Dutch National Opera on large educational projects and has created his own projects which allow schoolchildren to be an integral part of (semi)-professional productions.