JANJOOST VAN ELBURG was invited to become musical director of the newly formed Bartholomew Consort in 2001, having spent some time working with the founding group of singers.

He studied at the Conservatory of Rotterdam with Barend Schuurman, one of the leading conducting teachers in Holland, concluding his studies in 1991. He studied singing with Jelle Drayer, Margreet Honig and with Ghislaine Morgan in England.

JanJoost has held several directing posts in the UK, notably with the Renaissance Singers (London), and the Reading Bach Choir. As well as working with the Bartholomew Consort he is principal director of Blackdowns Early Music Projects, having conducted all five of their Grand Baroque events in Exeter Cathedral as well as numerous other projects in and around the Blackdown Hills in the South West.

In the Netherlands, his own choir, the Lelikoor, recently celebrated its 35th anniversary. He is director of music at Amsterdam’s Westerkerk where he conducts cantata services each month with the baroque ensemble t’Kabinet and he is also developing new choral projects in his home town of Doesburg.

In the UK and the Netherlands he is much sought after both as a vocal coach for singing and ensemble technique, and as a teacher of both music theory and choral conducting. As a singer he has performed with the Tallis Scholars, The Dutch Broadcast Choir, Capella Pratensis and Capella Coloniënsis in Cologne. He is a regular guest conductor of Polyhymnia in New York and in 2017 worked with the Choir of the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague as assistant of Ton Koopman for their Bach B-minor Mass collaboration with the Juilliard School in New York and Boston.