The Belgian tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen graduated from his studies at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels in 2012. In 2017 the Belgian Music Press Union awarded him the Caecilia Prize.
In 2011 he participated in William Christie and Paul Agnew’s vocal academy Le Jardin des Voix. Since then, he has worked regularly as a soloist with Les Arts Florissants and can be heard with this ensemble in many important international concert halls. He also performs with other leading Baroque ensembles such as Collegium Vocale Gent, Le Concert Spirituel, Le Concert d’Astrée, Les Talens Lyriques, Pygmalion, Le Poème Harmonique, the B’Rock Orchestra, the Ricercar Consort, Scherzi Musicali and Hespèrion XXI, and has sung under the direction of conductors including Simon Rattle, Roberto González-Monjas and Marc Minkowski.
Reinoud Van Mechelen’s engagements have taken him to venues including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Opéra National de Bordeaux, the Opéra Comique, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Philharmonie and the Opéra national in Paris, the Opéra Royal in Versailles, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Festival international d’opéra baroque de Beaune, La Monnaie and Bozar in Brussels, the Berlin State Opera, the Zurich Opera House and the Theater an der Wien.
His opera repertory includes several roles by Rameau — the title roles of Dardanus, Zoroastre and Pygmalion, Hippolyte (Hippolyte et Aricie) and Abaris (Les Boréades) — along with Jason in Charpentier’s Médée, Orphée (Orphée et Eurydice), Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Gérald (Lakmé) and Nadir (Les Pêcheurs de perles).
Recent and upcoming projects include Pylade (Iphigénie en Tauride) and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) at the Opera Vlaanderen in Antwerp, Castor (Castor et Pollux) at the Paris Opéra, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Grand Manège in Namur and the Opéra Royal in Versailles, Dardanus in Tourcoing, Paris and at the Festival de Beaune, Mozart’s Requiem in Winterthur, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Netherlands Chamber Choir, concerts featuring works by Lully and Rameau with the Berlin Philharmonic and recitals with the pianist Anthony Romaniuk in Paris and at the Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice.
His discography to date features some fifty recordings. Reinoud Van Mechelen also directs the ensemble a nocte temporis, which he founded in 2016.
