When you think of an orchestra, you think classical music. That’s not the Metropole Orkest (MO). Playing jazz, pop, world music and film scores, the Metropole Orkest has shared the stage with legends such as Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Pat Metheny, Brian Eno, Herbie Hancock, The Basement Jaxx and Bono. The MO invests just as much in playing with the next generation of stars like Caro Emerald, Laura Mvula, Robert Glasper, Woodkid, Snarky Puppy and Gregory Porter. Under the helm of the young British chief conductor Jules Buckley Metropole Orkest seeks to challenge boundaries of current symphonic pop and jazz.
The Metropole Orkest is a regular guest on The Netherlands’ main stages such as the Amsterdam Paradiso, The Concertgebouw and has played in both the Barbican and Royal Albert Hall in London. The Orkest also plays many festivals including North Sea Jazz, BBC Proms, Holland Festival, Pinkpop and Lowlands, to name but a few. In recent years, the Metropole Orkest won 3 Grammy Awards and received 17 Grammy Nominations.
The Metropole Orkest has produced more than 150 albums and thousands of radio and television broadcasts, requiring over 600 arrangements per year in every imaginable style. Despite this musical versatility, people all over the world can recognise inimitable sound, style and identity of the Metropole Orkest.
As the world’s leading pop and jazz orchestra, the Metropole Orkest is always looking to experiment and to be part of spectacular performances. The Metropole Orkest moves audiences. That is, after all, the real purpose of music.
Chief conductor: Jules Buckley
Honorary conductor: Vince Mendoza
The Metropole Orkest has a track record of working with versatile chief conductors. Beginning with its founder Dolf van der Linden, subsequent holders of this position are Rogier van Otterloo, Dick Bakker and Vince Mendoza. In 2013 the dynamic young British conductor Jules Buckley was appointed as the Metropole Orkest’s newest chief conductor.