Frans de Ruiter, a famous harpsichord player and former Director of the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague passed away on 16 July at the age of 79.
Frans de Ruiter also played a key role in the creation of the Dutch National Opera Academy (1996), a joint initiative of the Royal Conservatoire and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. This collaboration offered young opera singers a unique opportunity to develop within a shared framework of artistic expertise and high-level training.
In 2001, he founded the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA), originally established as the Faculty of the Arts. With ACPA, he created a unique connection between Leiden University and the University of the Arts The Hague, bringing together artistic practice and academic research in a way that was ahead of its time. Since 2009, ACPA has been part of the Faculty of Humanities at Leiden University.
He was the founder of the Utrecht Early Music Festival and director of the Holland Festival (1977-1985).
