Bernard Burger

Born: Amsterdam February 22nd 1932 - Died: Enschede January 29th 2012 Bernard Burger was born in Amsterdam in 1932. After ending his grammar-school he initially studied oboe at the Amsterdam Conservatory and he took conducting lessons with Felix Hupka briefly. He then continued his studies in orchestral conducting continuing the "Mozarteum" in Salzburg with Igor Markevitch. In concluding his studies Burger attended several international master classes with, among others Erich Leinsdorf, Hermann Scherchen, Lovro von Matacic and Rafael Kubelik. By Nikolaus Harnoncourt he visited a study week on Bach's Passion Music. As a conductor he has performed with various national and international orchestras, including the Hamburger Sinfoniker, the Orchestre de Chambre de Toulouse and the Orquesta de Bellas Artes in Mexico. In the Netherlands, with the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra, the Overijsels Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of the East and the Dutch Promenade Orchestra. He also led baroque orchestras such as the Florilegium Musicum (inter alia in the Dutch premiere of Homilius' Matthew Passion and Bach's B Minor Mass) and Les perruques d'Amsterdam. In the spring of 1999, Bernard Burger retired from his oratorio choirs in Almelo and Enschede, partly to have more time available for a guest conductor, including in Lithuania in the Western Lithuanian Symphony Orchestra in Klaipeda. In 2002, he also laid the leadership of the Twente Chr. Oratoriumvereniging down in Hengelo. On that occasion he received the silver medal of the municipality of Hengelo. Earlier, he was named a Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau.