Irene Verburg

Irene Verburg is a Dutch mezzo-soprano, vocal pedagogue, and choral conductor. Since 2025, she has served as Executive Director of the Vocaal Talent Nederland Foundation | National Choirs of the Netherlands. She studied classical singing at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and continued her training in New York. As a soloist, she has performed in opera, oratorio, and orchestral song repertoire, spanning works from Bach to Mahler, Strauss, and Berg. Irene Verburg is internationally recognized for her work in vocal and musical preparation of choirs. As principal vocal coach and conductor of the National Choirs of the Netherlands, she has been involved in numerous productions in close collaboration with leading choirs and orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. She has worked extensively with conductors such as Iván Fischer, Sir Simon Rattle, Vladimir Jurowski, and Klaus Mäkelä, as well as with composers including James MacMillan, Unsuk Chin, Lera Auerbach, and Jörg Widmann. In her work, she strives for flexibility and a distinctive choral sound, tailored to the ensemble and concert repertoire, always in dialogue with the artistic vision of the conductor or composer.