Francis van Broekhuizen

Soprano Francis van Broekhuizen started singing at 15. She took her first private lessons with Bulgarian soprano Dobrinka Yankova in The Hague. After studying Social Work, she followed her vocal studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Kevin Smith. In 2002, she graduated with distinction and then trained at The New Dutch Opera Academy where she also graduated with distinction.

After being a semi-finalist at the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and prize winner at the Deutekom Opera Competition, Francis van Broekhuizen has been working as a soloist with Opera Zuid, Opera Trionfo and Opera Spanga since 2006. She has worked with conductors such as Boudewijn Jansen, Johan van der Camp, Stefan Veselka, Jan Stulen, David Levi and Ed Spanjaard.

Since 2001, Francis van Broekhuizen has formed a permanent duo with pianist Femke de Graaf. With a very diverse song repertoire, they give concerts throughout the Netherlands as a duo. Much attention is paid to programme notes from the stage. Together, Francis van Broekhuizen and Femke de Graaf took master classes with, among others, Roger Vignoles, Roger Braun, Kelvin Grout, Rudolf Jansen and Graham Johnson.

Francis van Broekhuizen also gives concerts throughout the Netherlands together with Gregor Bak, combining light music with classical repertoire.

Besides singing, Francis is also involved in teaching and master classes for beginning singers, and in this capacity, she participated in the TV programme Knoop in je zakdoek where she gave a master class to the mentally disabled Pim Avondrood. She also collaborated on a musical theatre project of the Papageno foundation with 40 autistic youngsters.