Lucas van Woerkum

Film Director

Lucas van Woerkum
Wave

Bio

Lucas van Woerkum (1982) directs drama films based on symphonic music and directs music documentaries. He studied French horn at Fontys Conservatory Tilburg and graduated in 2004 from the directing program of the Utrecht School of the Arts with the documentary film Mahler: Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, which he made in close collaboration with internationally known filmmaker Frank Scheffer. His graduation film premiered in the Holland Festival and was shown in the Auditorium of the Louvre Museum in Paris. In 2007 he was selected by the Dutch Filmfund to direct the fiction film To Anna, which was released on television and in cinemas. Next to that Lucas directed music documentaries for television on the composers Arvo Pärt, Willem Jeths, Michel van der Aa and Alfons Diepenbrock.

Symphonic Cinema was introduced to the public in June 2010 with the film Sophia, based on a composition by Dirk Brossé. Shortly after Sophia became a great success, Lucas got commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to make the film Scale, le tombeau de Mahler on a composition by Willem Jeths. In 2011 the Symphonic Cinema film The Isle of the Dead, based on Die Toteninsel by Sergei Rachmaninov was performed with the Residentie Orchestra The Hague conducted by Jun Märkl. In 2012 The Isle of the Dead was shown in a special event in the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam. In 2013 seven international orchestras commissioned Firebird, based on Stravinsky’s L’oiseau de Feu. In 2018, the new production of Ravel’s Daphnis & Chloé premiered at the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and had its Manchester premiere with the BBC Philharmonic. Until today both Firebird and Daphnis & Chloé are successfully touring around the world with recent highlights in Beijing, London, Brussels, Liège, Finland and Spain. Lucas newest film The Echo of Being is based on the life of the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler. It stars the international acclaimed actors Greg Wise (Sense and Sensibility) and Amira Casar (Call Me by Your Name) and had its celebrated premiere in February 2020 with the Nederlands Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Antony Hermus, opening the Concertgebouw’s Mahler Festival 2020. Currently Lucas is working on Gustav Holst’s The Planets and Hector Berlioz’ masterpiece Symphonie Fantastique.