Jos van Kan (Rotterdam, 1962) has been a versatile director of music theatre and opera since his debut. After early productions of classics by Beckett, Pinter and Williams in the Netherlands and Germany, he gradually shifted his focus towards music theatre from 2003 onward. Supported by the F.A.P.K., he studied opera styles in Taiwan, Italy and the United States, and went on to create a chamber musical in Taipei and stage productions in Singapore and Cambodia.

In the Netherlands, he has worked with ensembles such as Asko|Schönberg, Combattimento Consort and Het Gelders Orkest, and has created new music theatre works with composers including Joey Roukens, Wiebe Gotink and Param Vir. For the Concertgebouw Amsterdam he directed, among others, Ogen Dicht and De keuze van Ariane Schluter. Together with Micha Hamel he created more than ten productions, including De rode Kimono (Holland Festival & Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam).

Recent projects include:
Toonzetters, a concert featuring twenty new compositions by young composers (Oranjewoud Festival), co-produced with Primo Ish-Hurwitz and Bowie Verschuren.
Jealous Moon, a music theatre work with Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta for the Hul’q’umi’num-speaking community in Nanaimo, Canada.
Lantaarns with Dutch Classical Talent, in which pianist Shane van Neerden (winner of the Dutch Classical Talent Award) performed new work by Rik van Veldhuizen, accompanied by video art by Frouke ten Velden.

Van Kan continues to fuse tradition, experimentation and visual art into contemporary music theatre.