Kees Bakels, born on January 14, 1945 in Amsterdam, is a Dutch conductor who began his musical career as a violinist. He studied conducting at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. His early career involved performances with various orchestras as a guest conductor, including stints with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Symphony. In 1990, he became the principal guest conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for ten years, during which he recorded symphonies by Ralph Vaughan Williams for Naxos Records. From 1997 to 2005, he served as the first music director of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO), extending his tenure until Matthias Bamert took over in 2005. With the MPO, he recorded several albums for BIS Records, including works by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Édouard Lalo.
