Gavin Bryars, Claron McFadden & friends

Welcome to the 19th edition of Klarafestival! The theme Crossroads - Come Together keenly evokes the convergence of the audience, the artists and their inspiring concerts. A meeting place where the leading lights of international classical music enter into dialogue with challenging creations and young talent. 

The inspiration for this edition comes from festival artist Claron McFadden. As she told us in an interview, “I stand at a crossroads where styles and generations cross, meet, and collide”. This notion forms the core of the programme. We hope you will enjoy Klarafestival as a sanctuary of hope, polyphony and beauty in all its forms. As a place where the familiar takes on new meaning and where new experiences take you by surprise. 

Jan Raes, chairman

Joost Fonteyne, intendant

Chantal Pattyn, manager Klara

Autumn   

A Monday evening in October. Young people drift in to the Brussels Conservatory’s small concert hall on the Kleine Zavel. Musicians from every part of the world: singers, strings, wind instruments, percussionists, guitar players, composers – almost all of them enrolled on the Advanced Master in Contemporary Music in Brussels or Ghent. Many have never met before. But any nervousness quickly evaporates as soon as soprano Claron McFadden begins to speak. She warmly invites the students to join her in creating something special together. For Klarafestival 2024 they will put together an evening ritual devoted to Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, the iconic 1971 work by British composer Gavin Bryars. 

Meanwhile, the composer, too, greets the group with a broad grin from a huge projection screen. Live from his home in England, the eighty-year-old composer – no doubt for the umpteenth time, but still with unwavering enthusiasm – recounts the legendary story behind Jesus’ Blood. In the early 1970s, Bryars helped a filmmaker friend with the sound mix for a documentary about homeless people in South London. In return, he received several tapes of unused material. Bryars would normally erase such tapes and reuse them for other work. But for some reason he chose to listen to one of the tapes on headphones. What he heard was audio of people describing their lives on the street. They spoke about what,had happened to them, and about their everyday experiences. Some began arguing, others broke into song. ‘It was all rather shambolic’, Bryars remembers – many of those interviewed were heavy drinkers.

But within that mild chaos was a striking discovery. At a certain moment, a man sings a fragile melody, based on a seemingly religious text.

 Jesus’ blood never failed me yet 

         This one thing I know, for he loves me so 

         Jesus’ blood never failed me yet 

The man sings his way through the text, with mesmerising repetitions. In tune, in spite of his advanced age. His fascinating hymn lasts for 26 seconds; its source has never been traced. Was the song of his own creation? ‘I was transfixed’, says Bryars. ‘There was something so compelling in his performance, as if he transcended his surroundings. Because this passage was not used in the film, no images of the man have survived. A cameraman told me he was a bearded seventy-year-old who did not drink at all. Apart from that, we don’t know anything about him. He remains a mystery.’

With razor blade and sellotape – as one did in the tape loop days – Bryars made a loop of the fragment. He then improvised several accompanying chords on piano. “That was all I did at the time. It was a found piece.’ To preserve the fragile loop, Bryars took it to the art college where he taught in those years. In the top floor sound studio, he copied the loop from one tape to another – a 30-minute endeavour, the length of one reel. While the recorders were busy, the composer went downstairs to get some coffee. ‘When I got back, the tape was still running. But in the adjoining studios, usually a hive of cheerful activity, you could hear a pin drop. Everyone had stopped whatever they were doing, some people sat there crying. I had no idea what had happened – until I realised that the old man’s voice was drifting through the corridors and had knocked the students sideways. It then began to dawn on me: whatever I do with this fragment, the man and his voice must always take centre stage’.  

The conservatory students listen closely to Bryars’ every word as he describes what happened next. He first made an orchestration of Jesus’ Blood for several musician friends, gradually encircling the melody with instruments. Gentle strings, warm winds: layer by layer the accompaniment blossoms. But the old man at the centre sings on. Bryars began to perform Jesus’ Blood live, with the tape in the background – ‘well, actually in the foreground,’ he says, ‘because the voice is always larger than the instruments.’ When, in 1975, the work came out on vinyl from Brian Eno’s Obscure Records label, it quickly gained a certain cult status. 

That first recording was followed by a decades-long series of musical metamorphoses. Jesus’ Blood  travelled the world in a variety of versions, durations and line-ups, depending on the technical and human possibilities at any particular time. From the 24 minutes that were possible on vinyl to the 74 minutes on the CD that Philip Glass released, with Tom Waits responding to the old man towards the end. There are versions with chamber ensembles and with larger groups, including musicians from the New York Philharmonic. The longest ever performance took place in 2019 during a happening at Tate Modern. Bryars played the double bass throughout, in the company of homeless people and – back then already – Claron McFadden. 

For each of these different performances, the composer wrote a new score; he himself calls them ‘roadmaps’. He notes the organic evolution of Jesus’Blood in such a way that musicians from different backgrounds can perform the work. This Klarafestival concert will also have a new route map, tailor-made for the motley crew that will be on stage. As well as the conservatory students, Claron McFadden and Gavin Bryars in person, the percussionists of the French Ensemble TACTUS and a number of Claron McFaddon’s musical friends will also be participating. The same goes for Les Choux de Bruxelles: a choir of people with experience of poverty.

After the digital meeting with Gavin Bryars, the chairs are placed in a circle – there is more to discuss. This unique performance of  Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet will be the apotheosis of an evening that will shroud the Bozar building entirely in music. Claron McFadden is inviting the students to begin the evening with their own programme of mini-performances. She describes these as ‘live playlists’, introducing the listener both acoustically and mentally to the Jesus’ Blood universe. An exciting task, where the students are given carte blanche. Claron McFadden shares her views on coaching: she wishes to stand beside them, not above them. Plans are made, as well as an app-group. By the evening’s end, the loose particles of this company have become a group with a purpose.  

Winter

In the course of the following months, the creative process behind the happening evolves organically. Claron McFadden discusses the evening’s concept with Raf Van der Veken, conductor of Les Choux de Bruxelles, and he too is smitten by the plan. Meanwhile, the students brainstorm their ideas for playlists. Some first ensembles are tentatively formed. During a December meeting with McFadden and the festival team, they pitch their ideas. It is impressive to hear how fundamentally they approach Gavin Bryars and Jesus’ Blood. Some students want to work with sampling and tape loops. Others draw inspiration from the open character of the source material, with performances inviting the audience to contribute fundamentally to the sonic experience. There are musicians exploring the meditative aspect of Jesus’ Blood, or tapping into the societal contrast between the illustrious Bozar building – an Art Nouveau creation of Victor Horta – and homelessness.        

Spring

The first contours of the happening appear with the first of the spring sunlight. In England, Gavin Bryars is working on the roadmap for Jesus’ Blood, and on a new composition for Claron McFadden and pianist Claire Chevallier. This love song, based on a sonnet by Francesco Petrarca, will provide a bridge between the playlists and the performance of Jesus’ Blood. Meanwhile, Claron McFadden attends a  rehearsal by Les Choux de Bruxelles. In their cosy rehearsal space near the Ninoofsepoort, the singers respond enthusiastically to her inspirational exercises. Together they repeat, mantra style, their melodies for Jesus’ Blood. Then Claron McFadden asks everyone to sing along with eyes closed. Afterwards, a tear is visible here and there. In the centre of Brussels, the festival team and their colleagues from Bozar and the Conservatory are putting together a literal roadmap: who plays where during the playlists? The last spaces are allotted, the last instruments are hired. Almost ready for the Bozar takeover.

It is astounding to see how a collective project can emerge from all of those individual heads and hearts. And how a contemporary classic like Jesus’ Blood can continue to yield new artistic trajectories after so many years. In an interview, Bryars joked that, within his oeuvre, Jesus’ Blood can be compared with the Rolling Stones’ ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’: ‘It’s the one piece you know you’ll have to keep playing. There was a time when I thought it a pity. People sometimes seem to forget that I’ve written so much other music since 1971: five operas, twenty ballets and concertos, five string quartets, etcetera. But at a certain moment I accepted and embraced it. And I may have discovered a deeper connection to the spirit of the work. I began to listen more attentively, play less routinely. Whenever I now perform Jesus’ Blood, I try to be conscious of every detail, every nuance. After all these years, I’m still moved when the voice starts and the instruments join in, step by step.’

Katherina Lindekens, with thanks to Esther De Soomer   

Translated by Patrick Goddard        

Gavin Bryars

British composer Gavin Bryars is one of the most important figures in minimalist and experimental music. He started his career in the early 1960s as an improvisational jazz bassist in the Joseph Holbrooke Trio. In 1966 he became interested in composition and moved to New York, where he maintained contacts with composers such as John Cage, Morton Feldman and Cornelius Cardew. He made a name for himself with works such as The Sinking of the Titanic (1969) and Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (1971), which is based on a loop of a homeless man’s singing. The long list of compositions that Bryars has in the meantime created includes several concertos, music for ballet works and five operas.

Claron McFadden

The versatile American soprano Claron McFadden is best known for her interpretations of contemporary music, but is also at home in baroque music and jazz. McFadden has appeared on the largest international opera stages and has performed the title roles of Cavalli's Didone and Berg's Lulu, in addition to roles in creations such as The Time of our Singing by Kris Defoort and prisoner of the state by David Lang. As a resident artist at Muziektheater Transparant, she devised, directed and performed several multidisciplinary projects, such as Lilith, Secrets and Nachtschade: Aubergine. She recently paid tribute to the life and work of Nina Simone in the music theatre production NINA.

Maria Eichler 

German mezzo-soprano Maria Eichler graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp in 2021. She has sung in opera productions for Theater Bamberg and Opera Accelerator (Lithuania), among others, and worked with ensembles such as Studium Chorale and Ensemble Reflection. Since 2023, she has been a permanent member of the Symfonischer Chor Bamberg. In 2022-2023 she was part of NKK NXT, a development programme for young artists of the Netherlands Chamber Choir, with which she has collaborated on projects such as the King's Night concert at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and on Minaminotori, a choreographic work for eight singers and tape. She will soon be appearing in the production WASPS by her own music theatre collective EXSTO.

Rose Holiday

Rose Holiday is a 27-year-old aspiring musician/actress. At the age of 15, she stumbled upon the art collective Klein Verhaal in Oostende, where she worked with professionals in film, music and dance. When she was 24, she moved to Brussels in search of her birth parents, to learn more about her heritage. After a period of homelessness, Le Refuge Bruxelles helped her out. Through them, Rose had the chance to meet Claron McFadden. Rose joined the artistic collective Transfocollect in Schaerbeek, while also improving her acting, writing, producing, and performing skills. She recently started exploring the stand-up comedy scene. Rose intends to study for a bachelor’s degree to become a (preschool) teacher.

Claire Chevallier

Claire Chevallier is a French pianist who, through research and performance, has specialised in historical performance practice from the classical period to French music of the early 20th century. She has also built up a collection of six grand pianos from the period from 1842 to 1920. She has already performed at various international concert halls, including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Salle Pleyel Paris and the Alte Oper Frankfurt. Chevallier is always open to interdisciplinary projects and has contributed to several performances in collaboration with prominent artists such as Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Josse De Pauw, Jan Decorte, Jan Lauwers and Lisbeth Gruwez.

Ensemble TACTUS  

The French percussion ensemble TACTUS was founded in 2011. Since then, they have created multidisciplinary performances that explore the relationship between sound, the body and space in dialogue with other art forms. To this end, TACTUS has collaborated with numerous artists, such as choreographers Yuval Pick and Maud Le Pladec, director and actor Jacques Bonnaffé, illustrator and scenographer Marion Cluzel and circus collective Petit Travers. TACTUS focuses mainly on contemporary repertoire by Steve Reich, Julia Wolfe, Eunho Chang and Francesco Filidei, among others, but has also made a recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations in an arrangement for percussion.

Les Choux de Bruxelles

Bringing people together through singing: that is what Les Choux de Bruxelles stands for. The choir performs French chansons, Brussels classics and impressive canons, accompanied by Raf Van der Veken on accordion. Les Choux de Bruxelles performs regularly, for example for Odisee students or at events in the city of Brussels, and invites everyone to sing along or listen.

Raf Van der Veken

Raf Van der Veken is a semi-professional pianist/organist, accordionist and singer. As a singer, you can hear his voice during mass at the Brussels cathedral, among other places. He has been active as a conductor and accompanist for Les Choux de Bruxelles for nine years, driven by the passion to touch upon what is human and to share it with others.

Maris Pajuste 

The Estonian soprano Maris Pajuste studied musicology in Tallinn and Berlin and then classical singing in Rotterdam with Charlotte Riedijk and in Antwerp with Anne Cambier. She specialised in contemporary music through the master-after-master at the KASK & Conservatory Ghent, supervised by ensemble Ictus, with whom she has since regularly collaborated. After her studies, she settled in Brussels, where she founded the contemporary music ensemble TUUM with Marina Delicado (piano), Lucas Messler (percussion) and Anita Cappuccinelli (percussion). As a singer, Pajuste's interest is primarily in the sonic richness of the voice and the collaborative process between composer and performer.

Rebecca Driesmans

The Brussels singer and producer Rebecca Driesmans studied jazz singing at the Maastricht Conservatory, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the Royal Conservatory of Ghent, where she completed her studies and also followed the music production course. She is currently focusing mainly on her jazz project Bex, with which she released the debut single 'Easy Mountain' last year and was featured at Gent Jazz. She also lends her voice to various projects, including Oriana Ikomo's band, where she provides backing vocals and synthesizers. With Ikomo and others she recently won the Ensor for best music for their soundtrack to the VRT series Roomies.

Patrīcija Bloma

Patrīcija Bloma was born in Riga, Latvia. After graduating from the Jazeps Medins Riga Music Secondary School with Oskars Petrauskis in 2019, she decided to continue her studies with professor Simon Diricq and Pascal Bonnet at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. In 2022, she obtained her bachelor’s degree and is now pursuing a master's degree, which she is scheduled to finish in June of 2024. Patrīcija also plays in a professional wind band Riga, with which she performs regularly all around the country and Europe. She is also an active participant in many festivals and masterclasses.

Elodie Blume

Elodie Blume is a singer and multi-instrumentalist from France.  She explores different musical fields and textures through her travels and meetings with different artists in the U.S.A, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Belgium. Blume is now studying Jazz as a singer at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Brussels and regularly performs with different projects around France and Belgium.

Jurij Bregar

Jurij Bregar embarked on his journey as a saxophonist in the vibrant musical scene of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Following his graduation from the Conservatory of Music (under Matjaž Drevenšek and Jan Gričar), he pursued advanced studies under the guidance of Simon Diricq at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel. In 2022, he successfully obtained his bachelor's degree and is currently nearing the culmination of his master's program. Jurij showcases his talent regularly at prestigious festivals and concerts affiliated with the institution. Additionally, he actively engages in enriching masterclasses across Europe.

Alejandro Fenollosa Beltrán

Alejandro Fenollosa is a Spanish saxophonist, performer and improviser based in Gent. He has collaborated with the Joven Orquesta Nacional de España, Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid (Teatro Real), Ensemble Hopper and Ensemble Sonido Extremo, among others. He has participated in events such as the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, the akademie kontemporär of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, the ATTACCA Festival in Basel, the XVIII World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb and the VANG Contemporary Music Festival in Madrid, in addition to being a speaker at the TEDxYouth@LaVallUixo in 2015.

Filippo Gillono

Filippo Gillono is an Italian guitarist, composer and improviser. He studied Jazz guitar and Jazz composition in Turin and is an active member of the experimental and improvised scene in Turin and Berlin. Over the past years he has played with the trio Naso 2, the collective Pietra Tonale, and the duo Salmoni. He has collaborated with artists like Umut Adan, Yuval Avital, Hilary Galbreaith, Hansko Visser, Pasquale Calò, Pablo Lienhard, Vincent Laju, Diamanda La Berge Dramm and Ivan Bringas. Gillono played in festivals like Torino Jazz Festival, Jazz is Dead! Festival (Turin/Milan), Fusion Festival (Lärz, Germany), Valkhof Festival (Nijmegen) en Salon iKSV (İstanbul).

Valeriia Ivanukha

Valeriia Ivanukha is an Ukrainian cellist. At the age of 14, she moved to Dnipro, where she studied cello under the guidance of Artem Poludennyi and made her debut as a soloist with the Dnipro Symphony Orchesta in 2018. Since 2019, she studies with Jeroen Reuling at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel. At the moment she is completing her master's degree and expanding her knowledge of contemporary music. Ivanhuka has participated in international masterclasses with esteemed cellists such as Maria Kligel, Jacob Show, and Denis Severin. Amidst the challenges faced by Ukraine, she promotes Ukrainian music internationally, working with composers such as Maksym Poplinskiy and Zoltan Almashi.

HuiChi Li

HuiChi Li is a percussionist born and raised in Taiwan. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Taipei National University of the Arts and masters at Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel. She is currently a Manama student  in KASK & Conservatorium in Ghent, dedicated to discover different ways to extend musical expression and to keep exploring and approaching uncommon repertoire of contemporary music. 

Iñaki Marcos Bueno

Iñaki Marcos Bueno is a Spanish clarinet player and composer. Iñaki has played throughout Spain and in some European countries such as Italy, France, Belgium, Portugal and Germany. He has been awarded the Academic Excellence Award Banco Santander Foundation Scholarships 2022. He currently combines his career as a clarinet player with that of composer and collaborates with orchestras and ensembles of great international scope such as Ensemble Modern, Symfonisch Orkest Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Ensemble Fractales or Ghent Symphony Orchestra.

Michał Nowak

Michal Nowak graduated from the Ogólnokształcąca Szkoła Muzyczna II st. in Poznań under Dorota Samsel. He then continued his studies at the Conservatoire Municipal Maurice Ravel in Paris under Christian Wirth. He is currently studying under Simon Diricq at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel. He is a laureate of numerous international competitions, most notably the Concorso Internazionale Premio Città di Padova (1st Prize, 2015) and the International Saxophone Competition Wrocław (1st Prize, 2019). He has taken part in masterclasses with Claude Delangle, Vincent David, Daniel Gauthier and Lars Mlekusch.

Edoardo Giovanni Parente 

Edoardo Giovanni Parente is an Italian percussionist, performer and composer. He finished his studies in 2021 in Bari and he immediately started to play vibraphone, timpani and percussion as a soloist in different orchestras. His works and compositions are focused on connection between music and movement mixed with electronics and lights installations. He currently is playing with Orchestra Sinfonica della Città Metropolitana di Bari and organizing contemporary concerts and festivals with his collective Foly Hools. 

Francisco Rojas Huertas

Francisco Rojas Huertas is a professional flautist and piccolo player. He was born in Granada, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree. Afterwards, he studied in Warsaw and obtained his master’s degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. Francisco has developed his career around chamber and orchestral music. He has played at different festivals and in various orchestras, such as the Orchestra of the City of Granada and the National Youth Orchestra of Spain.

Carlo Sampaolesi

Carlo Sampaolesi is an Italian accordionist living in Brussels. His interest in sound and his relationship with space have led him to deepen the timbral and spectral research of his instrument, undertaking a series of collaborations and commissions with important international composers. He has performed with important ensembles and orchestras such as the Neue Vocalsolisten, MDI Ensemble, Orchestra La Fenice in Venice, also working with composers such as Lucy Railton, Jessie Cox and Catherine Lamb.

Salomé Saurel

Salomé Saurel studies violin in Strasbourg and in Brussels. Demonstrating a strong interest in contemporary music, she performed with the Linéa ensemble (Musica Festival Strasbourg, 2019) and co-founded the Semblance ensemble featured at the Royaumont festival (2023). Dedicated to education, she currently teaches at Neuville-en-Ferrain and participates in the Opus project in Lille. In parallel, she is participating in the mixed music project En Scène in partnership with ensemble Semblance, the Val d'Oise department and the Royaumont Foundation.

Eleonora Serani

Eleonora Serani was born in Italy, where she completed her bachelor's degree in harp and mathematics. In June 2023 she received her master’s degree in harp from the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. Eleonora is a versatile harpist who performs in a wide range of musical contexts. Her activities range from orchestral and chamber music to the promotion of contemporary repertoire. She has worked with international orchestras and artists such as the Antwerps Jeugdorkest and Benedetto Montebello.

Anna Svetlakova

Anna Svetlakova is a Siberian flautist, living in Belgium. During studies at Ural State Academy of Music she initiated a contemporary music ensemble InterText in collaboration with composer Dmitry Remezov, which premiered a lot of new music of young composers of post-soviet countries. In 2019 Svetlakova moved to Belgium and since then has been active in the music scene of Brussels and Gent as a flute player and concert organiser. She is supported by the Flemish government as an emerging artist.

Denise Tamburi

Denise Tamburi is an Italian flautist and performer based in Brussels. She collaborated with Brigitta Muntendorf during the Segnali Festival and participated in the Contemporary Music Workshop held by Marco Momi. She participated in the masterclasses held by MDI Ensemble and the Traiettorie festival in Parma and worked as a dancer and singer in Ferrara with theatre company Urochs. Tamburi is currently attending the Advanced Master's Programme in Contemporary Music under the guidance of the ICTUS ensemble at the Ghent Conservatory of Music with the project ‘In Balance between Sound and Movement.’ Her research focuses on the relationship and connection between music, dance and theatre.

Vadim Tkachuk 

Vadim Tkachuk was born in a small Siberian town called Nyagan. He started to study clarinet in the local music school when he was six years old. One year later he started with saxophone and moved to Yekaterinburg with his family. At the age of 14, he started his studies at Ural Music College for one year full of competitions. At one of these competitions, he received an invitation to study at the Royal Conservatory Antwerp (prof. Hans de Jong), which he accepted. In 2019 he moved to Antwerp and started his studies in RCA and after completing his bachelor’s he continued his studies at the Conservatory of Brussels in the class of Simon Diricq, where he studies now.

Gideon Van Canneyt

Belgian percussionist Gideon Van Canneyt completed his studies as a master's student at the Koninklijk Conservatorium  Brussel in 2022. He regularly plays with the Brussels Philharmonic and Orchestre Philharmonique Royale de Liège and has been a permanent member since 2020 at BL!NDMAN Collective. He performed in several halls such as La Villette, Bozar, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam and many more. Together with Silas Van den Spiegel he is now also active within the electronic music scene with their duo BLONDROS. 

Silas Van den Spiegel

Silas Van den Spiegel finished his studies at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussels in 2022 with great distinction, receiving the Horlait-Dapsens scholarship for his master's exam. As a freelancer, he has performed with various ensembles, including Brussels Philharmonic and BL!NDMAN. Recently, seeking to broaden his musical horizons, he co-founded the duo BLONDROS with his colleague and friend Gideon Van Canneyt. In this duo, they explore the intersection of percussion and electronic music.

Nicolò Vivi

Guitarist Nicolò Vivi is a student at the Vecchi Tonelli conservatory in Modena (Italy) in Erasmus at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel. He specializes in free improvisation and contemporary repertoire, collaborating with esteemed European musicians and composers. The scientific subject of his degree thesis is to help people comprehend new musical languages and to use those languages as a path to a more open and inclusive society.

Enora Yang

Enora Yang is an architect, graduated from the architecture school of Paris La Villette and is now studying contemporary and classical percussion at Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel. She performs with different ensembles from symphonic orchestras, chamber music to contemporary ensemble such as Ensemble 2e2m, Symblema Percussions, Pasklaar and l’Intensité retenue. She aims to explore the transversality of the arts, by intertwining music and architecture.

Alexandra Zholobova

Alexandra Zholobova is a Ukrainian violist born in Kiev. After completing her studies at the R. Glier Kiev Institute of Music in 2007, she left for Belgium to continue her studies at the Ghent Conservatory. There she studied with Michael Kugel and Diederik Suys and obtained her master's degree. Zholobova is passionate about both traditional music and the contemporary chamber music repertoire.

Les Choux de Bruxelles

Ghizlaine Sharaf, William, Paul, Jean-Marie Desmet, Marie Kina Talimbo, Carine De Bakker, Christiane Gabriels, Fathia, Patricia, Vasilios Vassileris, Michel Vassileris, Jacqueline Cardinael, Jacky Bols, Frans Vervliet, Vincent, Fatima Berkane, Willem Defieuw

Students and former students from the conservatories of Brussels and Ghent

Maris Pajuste, Rebecca Driesmans, Patricija Bloma, Elodie Blume, Jurij Bregar, Alejandro Fenollosa Beltrán, Filippo Gillono, HuiChi Li, Iñaki Marcos Bueno, Eleonore Meens, Michał Nowak, Edoardo Giovanni Parente, Francisco Rojas Huertas, Alexandra Zholobova, Carlo Sampaolesi, Salomé Saurel, Eleonora Serani, Valeriia Svanukha, Anna Svetlakova, Denise Tamburi, Vadim Tkachuk, Gideon Van Canneyt, Silas Van den Spiegel, Nicoló Vivi, Enora Yang