WENDY KOKKELKOREN
Wendy Kokkelkoren (1975) is the vocal soloist and soprano of The Maestro & The European Pop Orchestra. After finishing high school, she started with the study “solo singing” at the Maastricht Conservatory. In addition to her studies, she regularly sang at church services, concerts and musicals. Her most memorable role from that early musical period is Maria in West Side Story.
In 1999 Wendy successfully concluded the first phase of solo singing and opera and was allowed to continue studying the second phase in her solo singing studies. A busy period arrived because, in addition to her studies, Wendy also performed solos with opera company Opera Zuid, which led to several large roles in pieces such as Le Nozze di Figaro, Rigoletto and L ́Orfeo and L ́Enfant et les sortilèges.
In 2001, Wendy was asked to meet with Guido Dieteren. Guido was impressed by her singing talent and not long after, Wendy became the regular vocal soloist of The Maestro & The European Pop Orchestra. Wendy and Guido were not only impressed by eachother professionaly so it didn’t take long before the spark caught on. Several months after their first encounter, they became an inseparable couple. Five years later Wendy & Guido got married in the romantic Pancratius church in Heerlen.
Wendy graduated cum laude in January 2002 in the second phase of solo singing. In the following years, the album "Guido" was released and The Maestro & The European Pop Orchestra grew. Together with the pop orchestra, Wendy travels all over the world and gave several concerts with Marco Borsato, Alessandro Safina, Paul de Leeuw, Tommy Fleming, the 3 baritones, Ernst Daniel Smit and many others. The most beautiful performances Wendy was allowed to perform was for Queen Beatrix, the concerts in the USA and Canada, the Symphonica in Rosso concerts, the Christmas specials of Max Proms, many national TV specials, the Trouw Christmas concerts and especially the spectacular open-air concerts at the Pancratiusplein in Heerlen, the three-country point in Vaals, the Market of Sittard and the Market of Kerkrade.
In addition to the CD recordings with The Maestro & The European Pop Orchestra, Wendy also released three solo CDs: “Feelings”, “Arias & More” & "Love of my Life". More information about this can be found below.
