CV

Ruben Smits (the Netherlands, 1991) is the conductor of award winning acappella pop choirs VIVID (Zwolle) and Studio Voices (Utrecht). In addition, he works with male choir Gozers and as an invited pop choir conductor and conducting/arranging teacher in the Netherlands and internationally. 

Inspired by American contemporary acapella and Danish innovative choir leading, he combines various conducting methods with group improvisation and offers expressive freedom to the singers in his ensembles. 

His 500+ vocal pop and jazz arrangements are internationally published and performed worldwide. His style and intuitive writing for pop choir has resulted in numerous arranging commissions from choirs all over Europe and the USA. 

His articles on pop arranging since 1960 are published in the book “Zang Puur Sang” (2022). 

As a choir conducting teacher, he works at the Dirigentenwerkplaats Utrecht and he is head teacher of the Ward Swingle Course (vocal pop & jazz conducting). 

He provided workshops and courses to organizations and conductors in the United States, Canada and Malaysia. Recent international festival appearances include MCE International Choral Festival in Kuala Lumpur, Boston Sings, USA, Dabei Festival, Germany and Voice Up A Cappella Festival, Istanbul, Turkey.

From 2022 to 2024, he was part of the professional male a-capella group iNtrmzzo, and toured Europe and the Caribbean.

Outside his work as a musician, he was artistic director of the VolKoren.tv choir video platform until 2019 and member of the Youth Committee of the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat from 2016-2019.