Manuel Visser is a Dutch-born conductor and viola-player who grew up in a musical family with a flutist

as father and harpist as mother.

​In his early youth Manuel started playing the piano and violin which he later replaced for the viola.​

 

He studied viola at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with violist Michael Gieler and later with violist and conductor Jürgen Kussmaul who became a big musical influence.

 

Encounters and lessons by cellist Anner Bijlsma, harpsichord player and conductor Gustav Leonhardt and conductor Frans Brüggen where of great importance for his musical visions and further development as an open minded musician.

 

After his Master Degree in Amsterdam he studied ‘Postgraduate’ at the ‘Mozarteum’ in Salzburg with Prof. Peter Langgartner and in Paris with Garth Knox to specialise more  in contemporary music as well.

 

Manuel was prizewinner at several competitions like ’the International Competition for Young Violists’ in Slovenia and enjoys a career as chamber musician in many ‘historical informed performance’ and ‘contemporary music’ groups.​

 

After some years of working as a violist, Manuel developed an increasing interest in conducting and decided to study orchestral conducting with Lucas Vis and Ed Spanjaard at the Conservatorium of Amsterdam. He actively participated in conductingmasterclasses by a.o. Jorma Panula, Charles Olivieri-Munroe with orchestras like the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, the Kammerphilharmonie Graz and the North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.  

 

In the past years he conducted several educational projects with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and was assistant-conductor of the Orchestre de Chambre du Luxembourg. Since 2024 he is the artistic leader and conductor of CREAMO, a flexible group of creative musicians with an open mind of the highest level based in Amsterdam.