Danielle Baas
A Belgian composer of Amsterdam origin, born in 1958, Danielle Baas studied at the Jette Academy of Music and continued her training at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.

She is a laureate of several international composition prizes.

In 2001, she founded the flexible ensemble Mikrokosmos, whose aim is to promote the creation of Belgian works.

Fuga Prize 2004.

From 2005 to 2008, she founded and organized an annual Belgian music festival in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe called ‘Festival Emergence’.

SoundArt Radio in the UK will dedicate a program to her works in 2010.

In 2010, she organized the international concert ‘In the Footsteps of Chopin and Liszt’ by the European Trio Elisabeth Deletaille, Bruno Ispiola, and André Grignard, featuring a repertoire of Women of the World, which was a huge success and was reprised in Russia in 2011 and partially in Argentina.

Symphonic Project in France will dedicate a program to her chamber music.

Artistic Director of the Osmose Festival in Evere since 2015.

Recipient of the 2015 Fuga Prize (personal award).

Artistic Director of L’Heure Musicale in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean since May 2021.

President of the Union of Belgian Composers since late 2023.

Nicole De Paepe was born in Antwerp on July 11, 1958. Encouraged by the musical pursuits of her father, who played piano as a hobby, and her grandmother, who was an opera singer, she entered the music academy in Borgerhout at the age of eight, where she studied piano, cello, harmony, and chamber music. In 1974, she earned a distinction for piano at the Gunther Competition in Brussels and in 1977, she was awarded a government medal in Borgerhout. At the age of 14, she took the entrance exam at the Royal Flemish Music Conservatory in Antwerp, where she studied music theory, harmony, practical harmony, counterpoint, music analysis, music history, and art history. She specialized in piano and chamber music.

Passionate about music and guided by her intuition, she began composing at a young age. This continues to inspire her to this day.
For two years, she worked as a ballet accompanist. At 21, she became a
practical harmony teacher at the Royal Flemish Music Conservatory in
Antwerp, a position she held for 14 years. She retired to devote more time to raising her three children and to developing her career as a freelance pianist and composer.

As a pianist, she has accompanied various choirs, including
the Antwerp Philharmonic Choir (Philko), the Royal Mixed Choir Alma Musica, and the Don Bosco Choir in Hoboken. She is also regularly invited to accompany choirs such as the Sanseveria women’s choir in Duffel, the Edegem Family Choir, and, in the past, our Schola Gregoriana, Camerata Vocale, and Cantabile from Hove, among others. She has also accompanied soloists at various concerts and competitions at home and abroad.

Nicole also plays the organ, and you can hear her perform Bach interpretations as well as her own works. She has also performed in various churches in Antwerp, including those of St. James, Charles Borromeo, Christ the King, Pius X Wilrijk, the Holy Family, and St. Joseph in Hoboken.

From 2002 to the present, Nicole De Paepe has also participated in various (art) projects, such as the Night of Museums, the Summer of Antwerp, the Channel exhibition, the Golden Derailment on July 11, 2002, in Brussels, and the Galerie Utrecht in the Netherlands. She has also collaborated with cultural centers and given various private concerts.

Her music has been featured several times on numerous radio stations,
including Marc Brillouet’s Funiculi Funicula. Radio 2 presenter Els Broekmans has also interviewed her several times. Nicole is also actively involved in various concerts and accompaniments, including for German and Dutch television.

She has composed music for Antwerp legends and stories such as Brabo and Antigone, Lange Wapper, and Nello and Patrasche. In this final storytelling recital, she brings the story of A Dog of Flanders to life musically. Nicole sometimes collaborates with Milly Jennes, the driving force behind the puppet theatre Mirantibus, in this recital, acting out the story with her beautiful puppets.

Nicole previously recorded the CD Bagatelle in collaboration with violinist Marcel Andriesii.
She is working on new concerts with hornist Ernest Maes and cellist Viviane Abdelmalek, and new CDs featuring her compositions have been recorded.

Raoul De Smet werd geboren op 27 oktober 1936 in Borgerhout.

Hij studeerde Romaanse filologie en muziekgeschiedenis aan de Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven. Hierna volgde hij een specialisatiejaar als beursstudent in Madrid en Salamanca. Vier jaar was hij werkzaam in Tunesië als lesgever; hij doceerde tot 1996 Spaans aan de Katholieke Vlaamse Hogeschool te Antwerpen.

Zijn muzikale basisopleiding (solfège, harmonie, piano) genoot hij aan de
Muziekacademie van Deurne. Afgezien van deze opleiding was hij als musicus autodidact, tot hij vanaf 1966 compositie ging studeren bij Lucien Goethals en Louis De Meester aan het IPEM te Gent, bij August Verbesselt te Antwerpen en bij Ton de Leeuw te Amsterdam.

Door zelfstudie van theoretische werken (Schönberg, Krenek, Koechlin, Messiaen, e.a.) en van partituren, en door het beluisteren van allerlei genres heeft hij een persoonlijke taal ontwikkeld.

In 1972 nam De Smet deel aan de Ferienkurse für Neue Musik te Darmstadt, waar twee van zijn werken werden uitgevoerd. Hij woonde tevens de Gaudeamus-dagen bij in Bilthoven.

In 1976 nam hij deel aan het American Seminar te Salzburg over Contemporary American Music.

In 1977 vertegenwoordigde hij het IPEM op het Colloquium Musica/Sintesi in het
kader van de Biënnale van Venetië.

Van 1974 tot 1994 organiseerde Raoul De Smet te Antwerpen de Orphische Avonden, concerten voor eigentijdse (vooral Vlaamse) kamermuziek te Antwerpen.

Tussen 1980 en 1984 was hij lid van de Raad van Bestuur van het Centrum voor Muziek te Leuven.

Tussen 1983 en 1993 programmeerde De Smet concerten van eigentijdse kamermuziek in de Foyer van de Stadsschouwburg (Antwerpen).

In 1976, 1985 en 1990 organiseerde hij Elektronische Muziekdagen in het ICC en deSingel.

In 1981 startte hij de E.M.-reeks, een uitgave in facsimile van kamermuziek van Vlaamse componisten.

In 1987 stichtte hij de OrpheusPrijs, een Tweejaarlijks Internationaal Concours voor de interpretatie van eigentijdse kamermuziek.

Sinds 1999 organiseert hij het “Belgian Chocolates” festival.

Michel Defourny, born in 1957, is an engineer and a self-taught composer.

He holds a degree in electromechanical engineering and a doctorate in Applied Sciences from the University of Liège. However, alongside his studies and later his career, he has always been drawn to classical music, in which his parents immersed him from a very young age. As he likes to say, he learned to compose music the way a child learns to speak: by listening and experimenting.

As a self-taught composer, he wrote his first compositions during his adolescence and while studying classical guitar at the Grétry Academy in Liège. These short guitar pieces are improvisations that have taken shape through repeated playing. A few years ago, he compiled his best pieces into two collections:

• Ambiances musicales (10 pieces)
• Pièces caractéristiques pour guitare (8 pieces)

which are available on the online sheet music site FreeScore.

Around the age of 20, he took over the direction of a choir, which he led for 17 years, during which time he harmonized and composed numerous pieces for four voices.

He then devoted himself to musical composition more generally, exploring various instruments and ensembles. He was fortunate to cross paths with Danielle Baas, who regularly featured him in the concerts she organized, allowing him to meet many composers and musicians, which allowed him to develop his writing and style. In particular, he has written several hexatonic works.