In May 2025, Michael Engelbrecht conducted the highly successful revival premiere of Jules Massenet's opera Werther at the National Theater Košice (Slovakia). The leading roles were performed by international star singers Elena Maximova and Zurab Zurabishvili. This performance also received several praising reviews. The leading opera site ‘Opera Slovakia’ wrote among others:

 

“Dutch conductor Michael Engelbrecht led the musicians with overview and control. Before the intermission, the orchestra played with unprecedented cohesion; after the break, the sound gained a strong romantic charge. The conductor deserves all praise.”

​In the 25/26 season, he will return here once again to conduct several performances of Werther.

 

In 2023, the Swiss ‘Willem Mengelberg Stiftung’ awarded Michael Engelbrecht with the ‘Mengelberg Conducting Award’. The jury:

​

"The board of directors of the Swiss Willem Mengelberg Stiftung is highly impressed by the Dutch conductor Michael Engelbrecht: Michael has an extraordinary conducting talent, with a clear and precise technique in communicating with an orchestra. Also, his interaction with musicians makes him very effective in conveying his musical vision of a score to the members of an orchestra. The board is also positive over his broad orientation with respect to repertoire: he feels at home with widely varying sorts of music. His background as a brass player is clearly audible in his attention for the lower sections of the orchestra, resulting in interpretations with a strong feeling for momentum and a warm orchestral sound." 

​​

 

​In 2021, Michael won first prize at the 'Blue Danube / Béla Bartók International Opera Conducting Competition' with the State Opera Stara Zagora (Bulgaria). The program of this competition included four complete operas: Mozart's Don Giovanni, Bizet's Carmen, Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle.​

Michael was also first prize winner of the Budapest International Masterclass & Competition for Orchestral Conducting, where the musicians of the MÁV Budapest Symphony Orchestra acted as a jury and elected him as the winner.

​

Michael Engelbrecht is currently chief conductor and artistic director of his self-founded Dutch Wind Symphony. As a guest conductor, he conducted among others the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, National Theatre Košice (Slovakia), State Opera Stara Zagora (Bulgaria), the MÁV Budapest Symphony Orchestra, the Eindhoven Symphony Orchestra and the Dutch National Student Orchestra during their tour in Croatia. He also conducted concerts of the Philips Symphonic Wind Orchestra during their tour in China in Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai.

​

Michael completed his tenor tuba and conducting studies at the conservatories of Tilburg and Maastricht and attended several international masterclasses.

He began his professional musical career at age 17, as a tenor tuba player in the Royal Dutch Military Band in The Hague. He won first prize at the ‘Concours Mondial de Tuba et Euphonium’ in Guebwiller (France).

As an instrumentalist he performed with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ballet Orchestra Amsterdam, The Hague Philharmonic (Residentie Orkest) and the Aachen Symphony Orchestra. He collaborated with conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Ingo Metzmacher, Marc Albrecht and Sir George Benjamin. He also performed as a soloist with orchestras and as a chamber musician. For several years now Michael Engelbrecht has focused exclusively on his conducting career.