Biography

  Photo: DeirdreDalyPhotography

In 2015, Gulian van Nierop graduated with honours and a double major in classical voice and choir conducting at the Utrecht Conservatory. He studied voice with the Icelandic tenor Jón Þorsteinsson and conducting with Rob Vermeulen. He has since established further vocal progress under the wise tutelage of Teun Michiels and Marcel van Dieren.

Gulian loves theater and performs regularly on the opera stage. He recently starred as Zurga in Bizet’s Pearl Fishers and Dottore Malatesta in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. With the young Dutch opera collective B.O.O.M!, or Bold Opera On the Move, he played Papageno, both in Die Zauberflöte and in the successful Dutch-language adaptation De Toverfluit, directed by Frank Groothof. He also collaborated with Opera2Day and played lead parts in Brúndibar (Krasá) and La finta semplice (Mozart).

He also works in the Dutch oratoria field and collaborated with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Ton Koopman and the Holland Baroque Society with Erik van Nevel, among others. He sings regularly with Capella Amsterdam and Consensus Vocalis, and he joined productions of DNO (Dutch National Opera) and The Dutch National Touring Opera as a chorus member.

He was one of the founders of the Olga Vocal Ensemble, a successful five-member a cappella ensemble that was praised in the Netherlands, France, Iceland and America. As a conductor he has had several orchestras and choirs under his care. He is artistic leader of Het Plantage Kamerorkest, a  chamber orchestra in Amsterdam, and Vocalise, a choir in Ede.

Gulian also holds a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Science and sometimes spends a day in the kitchen to try out new formulas and recipes.