Philippe Herreweghe was born in Gent and studied at both the university and music conservatory there. During this period he started conducting and founded Collegium Vocale Gent in 1970.

Philippe Herreweghe’s energetic, authentic and rhetorical approach to baroque music was soon drawing praise. In 1977 he founded the ensemble La Chapelle Royale in Paris, with whom he performed music of the French Golden Age. He founded several ensembles with whom he made historically appropriate and well-thought-out interpretations of repertoire stretching from the Renaissance to contemporary music. They include the Ensemble Vocal Européen, specialised in Renaissance polyphony, and the Orchestre des Champs Élysées, founded in 1991 with the aim of playing pre-Romantic and Romantic repertoire on original instruments.

Among the highlights of the 2026/27 season are concert tours with the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, taking the orchestra to China’s leading concert halls with, among other works, a selection of Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies. Further tours with Collegium Vocale Gent will include performances of J. S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Konzerthaus Wien, the Heidelberger Frühling, and Munich’s Isarphilharmonie.

Together with both ensembles, Philippe Herreweghe will also appear across Europe, performing Mozart’s Mass in C minor in venues including Bozar Brussels, the Philharmonie Luxembourg, and Müpa Budapest.

Philippe Herreweghe has received numerous awards for his consistent artistic imagination and commitment. In 1990 the European music press named him “Musical Personality of the Year”. Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent were appointed “Cultural Ambassadors of Flanders” in 1993. A year later he was awarded the Belgian order of Officier des Arts et Lettres, and in 1997 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Leuven. In 2003 he received the French title Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. In 2010 the city of Leipzig awarded him its Bach-Medaille for his great service as a performer of Bach. In 2017 Philippe Herreweghe received an honorary doctorate at Ghent University.