Belgian conductor Karel Deseure has conducted extensively across Belgium and the Netherlands, regularly receiving re-invitations from orchestras such as the Brussels Philharmonic, Royal Liège Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony and Arnhem Philharmonic orchestras.

Karel has made debuts in recent seasons with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, National Orchestra of Belgium and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra in Heilbronn. In the current season, he conducts the New Year concerts at the Orkest van het Oosten, makes his debut with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and returns to the Flanders Symphony and South Netherlands Philharmonic orchestras. Additionally, he has worked twice with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as assistant conductor.

In 2016, Karel made a critically acclaimed opera debut at Opera Zuid in the south Netherlands with Puccini’s La Bohème, bringing the production to the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg in December of the same year. Following that, he was re-invited to conduct fourteen performances of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, with a further return in 18/19 for twelve performances of Bernstein’s A Quiet Place. In early 2018, Karel worked with the Dutch National Opera Academy in performances of Britten’s The rape of Lucretia in The Hague and Budapest.

Originally a flautist, Karel earned his master’s degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, subsequently studying conducting at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. He is privileged to have been chosen for prestigious international masterclasses: with Bernard Haitink during the 2014 Lucerne Festival; with Peter Eötvös at the IRCAM with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; and with Christopher Seaman and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. In 2012, he won second prize and the public’s prize at the Concours International de Direction d’Orchestre in Paris, and later that year he was awarded the prestigious conducting scholarship of the Anton Kersjes Foundation.