Prof. Kurt Bikkembergs

Belgium

Composer and conductor Kurt Bikkembergs was born in Hasselt in 1963. After graduating in music teaching, composition and choral and orchestral conducting at the Lemmens Institute in Louvain, he persued his training in international master classes in Belgium and Austria given by, among others, Robert Sund (Sweden) and Timothy Brown (UK) for choral conducting, and Heinz Kratochwil (Austria) for composition. He was choir master at the Flemish Opera (2002-2008) and choir master/artistic director of the EuroChor-AGEC (2007-2010). He is currently choir master and professor choral conducting at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven, Kapellmeister of the Brussels Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudule, artistic director of the Capella di Voce and of the Students Chamber Choir of the Netherlands and a guest conductor of the Flemish Radio Choir. He is an active member of Europa Cantat and of the International Festival for the Youth in Neerpelt. As a composer he strives to renew vocal, in particular religious music, by adding personal experiences without neglecting tradition. His compositions include all kinds of choir music, chamber and ballet music, three oratorios and a couple of cantatas, but also orchestral works. At his leisure, he sometimes spends time as a freelance composer, conductor,member of a jury, and even singer, which led to successful commissions by several festivals in Belgium (Maasmechelen, Neerpelt, Tongeren, Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Harelbeke, Courtrai, Watou, Hasselt , Louvain, Heist-op-den-Berg…) and abroad, in Germany (Bottrop, Saarbrücken, Halle, Mainz, Bonn, Limburg, Irsee), Holland (Dordrecht, Bussem, Amstelveen, The Hague, Utrecht, Den Bosch, Breda, Arnhem), France (Menton), the United Kingdom (Oxford), Spain (Barcelona), Poland (Poznan), Belarus (Minsk), Hungary (Pomaz), Serbia (Nis), Slovakia (Bratislava) and Croatia (Split).