Hans Eijsackers

Hans Eijsackers studied with Gérard van Blerk, Jan Wijn and György Sebök. In 1992 he obtained the diploma Performing Musician with Distinction at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, after which he was invited to study at the European Mozart Academy in Kraków, from which performances followed in Budapest, Southeastern Asia, Cornwall and New York. He was winner of the “Rotterdamse Piano 3-Daagse”, the Princess Christina Competition and the 1991 European Piano Competition in Luxembourg, where he performed Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto in the final and also won the special prize for song accompaniment. Twice he was awarded the Silver “Vriendenkrans” of the Concertgebouw.He taught duo class and chamber music at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, and solopiano at the HKU in Utrecht, since 2013 he has been appointed Professor for Liedgestaltung at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf.

Hans Eijsackers performs frequently as a soloist, chamber musician and song accompanist. He has worked with conductors Otto Tausk, Neeme Jervi, Gordan Nicolic and Yannick Nézet-Seguin, among others.Hans is a frequent guest at the Storioni Festival, the Grachten Festival, the Danube Music Festival, the Festival di Musica Classica di Linari, the International Song Festival Zeist and chamber music festivals in Delft and The Hague. From 2007 to 2010, he was the artistic director of the "Uitgast Festival", a musical summer open-air event in the Natuurpark in Lelystad. Today, he is artistic director of the International Student LiedDuo Competition in Groningen and, together with Henk Neven, artistic director of the International Lied Festival Zeist.Since a joint tour in the Rising Stars series in 2001, including recitals in Carnegie Hall, New York and Wigmore Hall, London, he has been performing as a duo with clarinettist Lars Wouters van den Oudenweijer. After a successful CD of Reger's sonatas, their second CD of Brahms' sonatas was also very enthusiastically received by press and media. Other chamber music partners are double bass player Rick Stotijn and bassoonist Bram van Sambeek, with whom he also explores the hardrock repertoire.

Hans Eijsackers is a much sought-after Lied pianist, having performed with Xenia Meijer, Geert Smits, Christianne Stotijn, Thomas Oliemans, Peter Gijsbertsen and Henk Neven. Together with Henk Neven, he won the Mees Pierson Prize in May 2008. Their CDs "Auf einer Burg", "The Sea" and "Rêves d' Espagne" were received with acclaim by the press, on their latest CD "With love from Russia" they collaborated with cellist Jan Bastiaan Neven.

As a jury member, he participated in the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Student LiedDuo Competition in Groningen, Schubert und die Moderne in Graz and the Princess Christina Competition, invitations for master classes took him to places like Brussels, Graz, Montepulciano, Lithuania and Surabaya, in addition to the Netherlands and Germany. 

Updated 28/09/2023