Born in St. Gallen, Switzerland (1994), Massimo Raoul Beckers started playing music from an early age onwards, among others on the piano and the guitar. He moved to the Netherlands at the age of nine.
After graduating as a Bachelor of Arts & Culture at the University of Maastricht (2017), he became a specialized Master of Musicology with his final thesis Shaping the Soundscape History (2018), as well as several papers on music in Islamic mysticism and traditional Sufi rituals. Afterwards he graduated as a composer at the Utrechts Conservatory of Music ‘with honors’ (2022), with teachers such as Ned McGowan, Albert van Veenendaal, Bart Soeters and Wiek Hijmans, as well as external teachers such as Samuel Andreyev. He also graduated as a conductor at the Meerjarige Dirigentenopleiding (2022), where he was allowed to skip the first two years of his studies and immediately enter into the exam-year class. Here he studied with, among others, Hans Noyens, Dennis Broeders en Adrián Rodriguez van der Spoel.
Massimo conducts the Orkest van de Utrechtse Heuvelrug, which he founded to promote and perform works by Dutch composers, thereby retainig Dutch musical cultural heritage. The orchestra consists of professionals, conservatory students and experienced amateurs. The first concert was March 29th 2025 and promoted Philip Loots’ first symhphony, which had only been played once in 1915. He is also the conductor of the Amsterdams Studenten Orkest. Massimo has conducted orchestras such as the Siamo Orchestra, Westerkamerorkest, Zeister Phiharmonisch Orkest, OVIO, Kennemer Consort, Kamerorkest Driebergen, Baarns Kamerorkest Artoni, Orkest Crescendo Leersum, Vechtstreek Symfonieorkest, Larens Kamerorkest, Symfonieorkest Valse Romantique, NAS Nieuwegein, Orkest van het Groene Hart and the wind section of the Utrechts Studenten Koor en Orkest. He has led choirs such as the Utrechtse Studentencantorij, Zeister Mannenkoor, Stichts Mannenkoor, MDO-koor, Masjiach, Soester Mannenkoor Apollo, Lastage Koor Amsterdam and Leidsche Rijn Koor.
He has attended masterclasses in conducting with several esteemed conductors, such as Jorma Panula, John Axelrod, JoAnn Falletta, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Jim Benjamin Roodnat and Jean-Luc Tingaud. He has taken classes in orchestral conducting with René Gulikers.
Furthermore, Massimo has taught hundreds of students as a teacher in many different musical disciplines, such as composition, music theory, solfeggio/ear-training, artistic coaching, (classical) guitar, bass guitar and a wide variety of of other plucked string instruments. More info about music lessons can be found here.
Follow Massimo on Instagram:
Photo’s: Kijk eens naar het vogeltje – Fotografie