Kate Rockett has been named the New Director of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century.

Rockett will succeed current director Sieuwert Verster who will step down on Sept. 1, 2022 in order to devote himself to his record label Attacca for contemporary Dutch music, and to making documentaries.

Rockett is a trained trombonist at the Royal Academy of Music, London and specialized in historically-informed performance at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis; she is also a research masters in Musicology at the Open University who has performed with such orchestras and ensembles as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, The Gabrieli Consort, B’Rock Orchestra, and Concerto Köln, among many others.

She has also worked with the classical record label PENTATONE as Artist & Repertoire Manager and Executive Producer and collaborated with the ensemble LUDWIG and the Dutch Performing Arts Fund.

Regarding her appointment Rockett said, “since its founding over forty years ago by Frans Brüggen, the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century has been a highly-respected key player in the historically-informed performance movement and has inspired many other ensembles, both in the Netherlands and worldwide. Sieuwert Verster has been at the helm for all this time; a quite exceptional track record and a difficult act to follow. The orchestra is a remarkable international collective of passionate and committed musicians; I am delighted to have the opportunity to shape the next chapter of the organization’s history.”