Jeroen van Delft

Jeroen is a funny name. It is pronounces Juh-roon and is the Dutch form of the English Jeremy. Don't worry, everyone gets confused when they have to say it the first time!

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"Having lived and worked in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and California has given me a wealth of professional and life experiences that I love to share with performers and students. Giving others the incredible experiences that I have had as a student, performer, teacher and director, and having them profit from my extensive experience and research in musical theater (and far beyond) is my idea of happiness."

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On stage

After studying Musical Theatre at the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music in The Netherlands, Jeroen was on the international stage for about ten years, in big shows like Les Misérables (Antwerp), Jekyll & Hyde (Bremen) and Titanic (Dutch National Tour). Next to that Jeroen performed in many smaller productions, such as Pippin, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Company and The Hired Man. During this time, he founded his own musical theater group, The Musical Lab, with which he presented forgotten musicals by great names such as Jerome Kern, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Kurt Weill and Lionel Monckton in concert form. All in all, Jeroen played about 30 shows on stage. 

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Directing

Together with his stage career, Jeroen started directing. At first with his own theater group and soon beyond. His nearly 60 stage works encompass a great variety of musical and visual styles and Musical Theater genres, from classics as Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella or Irving Berlin's Call Me Madam to modernistic pieces like Spring Awakening and Michael John LaChiusa's Bernarda Alba, often taking on the role of producer as well. Jeroen also worked as segment director for Stage Entertainment's Holiday On ice. 

For more information on his work as a director, click here.

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Teaching

As from 2001 he turned his attention to teaching what he loved most. Since then he has been a lecturer and director in all the major musical theater schools in The Netherlands. Next to directing musical theater shows, he prominently teaches Song Interpretation (in Dutch, English, German and French), for which he developed his own teaching method Footprints. Other subjects include Drama, Audition Training, Monologue Training, Musical Theater History, Theory and Analyses as well as Vocal Ensemble and Choir. Next to that Jeroen has counseled and taught new writing talents, working as stage director, daily leader and lecturer of "Now!", a two-week workshop for young musical theater writers at the M-Lab Theater.  
For more on his Song Interpretation coaching method Footprints, click here.

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Creative Business Consultant

Jeroen also combines his knowledge and insight of the business side of Musical Theatre, the world of MT education and the practice of performing on stage as Creative Business Consultant for educational institutions in the performing arts. This started by being part of several innovation teams at the different schools he has taught at. At the moment he helps RTL Telekids Musicalschool / RTL Talent Academy develop, write and implement a new quality care management system for their 50 locations throughout The Netherlands, for which he also implements teacher screening and HR consultation. Next to that, Jeroen helped develop a new protocol for training and counseling interns from performing arts colleges as well as the new academic path for excelling performing arts students within the structure of arts educator Het Cultuurgebouw/Pier K, in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands.

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Initiative

Within these Musical Theater schools, Jeroen often took the initiative. He initiated theatre productions, classes and courses, did extensive theoretical research, wrote textbooks, was involved in the implementation of competence based education and in setting up a Knowledge Centre at Hanze University, started a media library twice and lots more.

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Entrepreneurship

Being an entrepreneur himself, Jeroen teaches Cultural Entrepreneurship for the Musical Theater at several musical theater schools. In the last few years Jeroen has also participated in several national educational projects teaching basic entrepreneurial skills to groups of children from the last year of primary school. His groups went on to compete in the Dutch national finals of these projects twice.

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Publications

Atlas of the Musical Theater, part 1 1728-1960 (2005)

Atlas of the Musical Theater, part 2 1960-present (2005)

Cultural Entrepreneurship for the Musical Theater (2010)

The Footprints Method (in preparation)

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Awards

Musical Award "Best Director" for Grand Hotel (2016).

Jeroen