Imre Ploeg

Composer and conductor Imre Ploeg (1990) connects (choral) music to other art disciplines and to social developments and initiatives. He graduated summa cum laude from the Music Teacher course at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and was taught by, among others, composers Huub de Vriend and Kurt Bikkembergs and conductors Jos Vermunt, Fokko Oldenhuis and Rob Vermeulen. He also followed the application course for Choir Conducting at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht.

At the Netherlands Chamber Choir, Ploeg was artistic director of the talent development program NKK NXT from 2019 to 2023. In addition, as education manager, he was responsible for the context surrounding NKK performances. He worked as a coach and art teacher at the Vrije Hogeschool (a Liberal Arts course) between 2013 and 2019.

As conductor of Chamber Choir JIP and Chamber Choir Ilmatar, among others, he is known for his poetically layered and multidisciplinary performances and mixing new music with choral music from outside Western Europe that is unknown in the Netherlands. He wrote commissioned compositions for, among others, the Dutch Student Chamber Choir, the VU Chamber Choir, the Brussels Cathedral Choir and the Kennemer Youth Orchestra.

Ploeg works for and with cultural and educational institutions at home and abroad, including the Royal Concertgebouw, the Dutch Opera, the Youth Initiative Program (Sweden) and The Gymnastics Club. He often enjoys working at the intersection between different art forms, philosophy and activism. Commissioned by the Municipality of Amersfoort, the Province of Utrecht and TwynstraGudde, among others, he conducted an artistic research in 2022-2023 into the value of humility and the relationship of Amersfoort residents with their (natural) living environment.