Philippe Herreweghe was born in Ghent and studied at both the university and music conservatory there, studying piano with Marcel Gazelle. During this period he started conducting and founded Collegium Vocale Gent in 1970. Herreweghe’s energetic, authentic and rhetorical approach to Baroque music was soon drawing praise.

In 1977 he founded the ensemble La Chapelle Royale in Paris, with whom he performed music of the French Golden Age. Since 2009, Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent have been actively working on the development of a large European-level symphonic choir. Since 2001 Philippe Herreweghe is artistic director of the Accademia delle Crete Senesi, from 2017 onwards known as the Collegium Vocale Crete Senesi festival in Tuscany, Italy.

Philippe Herreweghe continually seeks out new musical challenges, and has been very active performing the great symphonic repertoire, from Beethoven to Stravinsky. Since 1997 he is attached to the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, both as principal and guest conductor. He is also in great demand as a guest conductor with orchestras such as Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra or the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich.

Over the years, Philippe Herreweghe has built up an extensive discography of more than 120 recordings with all these different ensembles. In 2010 he founded together with Outhere Music his own label φ (PHI).