“I studied orchestral conducting at the Music Conservatoire in Maastricht in The Netherlands. After having attended several conducting courses in Holland and abroad, e.g. in Salzburg (where I studied with Ferdinand Leitner), I won several prizes in competitions for young conductors.
Many invitations followed: in Russia, I conducted the leading orchestras and furthermore orchestras in Lithuania, China, South Korea, Japan, Germany and of course in my own country The Netherlands where I also conducted several operas. With various orchestras I took part in famous festivals like the “World Music Days” and the “Warsaw Autumn”. Further, I led the national radio orchestras of Poland, Romania and Slovenia.
During my career, I worked with a lot of world famous soloists, like Alexei Lubimov, Anna Kravchenko and Lauma Skride as well as with almost all major instrumentalists and singers from The Netherlands.
In the past, I was a principal guest conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra of Chile, the Slovenian Radio and Television Orchestra and the Kosovo Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1988 to 2004, I was Music Director of the Dutch chamber orchestra “Ensemble ’88” which has played innumerable concerts and radio recordings. Since the beginning of my career, I conducted many ensembles for contemporary music.
I have been teaching orchestral conducting at the music academies of Maastricht and Enschede.
During 16 years, I was teaching at the music academy in Münster (Germany) and during 7 years, I was professor at the music academy in Hamburg (Germany). In this city, for two years, I also was Director of Music at the University. From 2018 to 2020, I was professor for Orchestra Conducting at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague (Netherlands). Since 2012, I teach at the University of Arts in Bremen (Germany). As a result of all my lessons, I wrote the book “A complete conducting technique”. Last year I started with my “International Masterclass Conducting Technique” in Belgium. Next August will be the next edition (www.renegulikers.nl/masterclass).
I was most influenced by the late Anton Kersjes, my first teacher. He taught me to express my musical feelings in movements of my body and my face. Although he was not an expressive conductor himself, he was able to observe his students very well and give them exactly what they
needed.
This is what I am trying to do myself while teaching: my individual approach is very constructive, calm, I am making everyone feel safe and open, but at the same time I am approaching everyone differently and stimulating everyone to take a step forward at his own level.
During my career, there were several highlights like conducting the Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra during an European Broadcasting Union Concert as the opening of the “World Music Days”: millions of people were looking and listening – and hopefully enjoying – my skills as a conductor on TV.
Furthermore I remember conducting “Le Sacre du Printemps” (I. Stravinsky) and “Ein Heldenleben” (R. Strauss) in Russia, and Mahler’s 4 th symphony in Chile as very happy moments.
Thinking of 3 CDs that I would bring to a desert island? Definitely I would choose the “Four last Songs” by Richard Strauss, sung by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and conducted by George Szell.
My second CD would by Beethoven’s third symphony by the London Classical Players, conducted by Sir Roger Norrington and my last, but not least, I would take “Monteverdi – Teatro d’Amore” with me and listen
a thousand times to “Pur ti miro” by Philippe Jaroussky and Nuria Rial with the ensemble “L’Arpeggiata”.”