il Gardellino, Vlaams Radiokoor & Bart Van Reyn
Biographie il Gardellino, Vlaams Radiokoor & Bart Van Reyn
Il Gardellino
Founded in 1988 il Gardellino borrows its name from Vivaldi's concerto "Il Gardellino" (R90) for flute, oboe, violin, bassoon and basso continuo. The core of the ensemble consists of Marcel Ponseele (oboe), Jan De Winne (traverso) Shalev Ad-El (harpsichord), Ryo Terakado (violin), Mika Akiha (viola) and Hervé Douchy (violoncello). For concerts or recordings, they are joined by renowned musicians such as François Fernandez (violin and viola), Vittorio Ghielmi (viola da gamba) and several other wind players.
All of them enjoy a considerable reputation in the world of historical performances. They are leaders - and sometimes even co-founders - of ensembles such as the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, La Petite Bande, L'Orchestre des Champs-Elysées and Collegium Vocale. Having spent many years in authentic practice, they master all the subtleties at their fingertips. However, as assembled in il Gardellino, they aim to make a difference and create something at the cutting edge.
While upholding Bach's works and especially his spirit as their guide, at the same time they wish to put him into a contrastive perspective. They juxtapose his works with those of his contemporaries whose repertoire is too often neglected. They play with our own contemporaries in the fields of contemporary music, jazz, world music, etc. During their tours, they invite writers, philosophers, cinematographers or video makers and weave a dialogue with other forms of artistic expression.
Having already accomplished some pioneering performances with jazz musicians (while playing on their period instruments of course), they plan future programs along more traditional lines which will include sacred vocal music as well as opera. After having performed and been highly praised at many festivals and concert halls in Europe, il Gardellino has been recently enjoying an ever increasing success in the United States, Israel, South America, and Japan. Many CDs have been and will further be recorded for the labels Accent, Klara and Passacaille.
Bart van Reyn
one of Belgium’s leading conductors of the new generation, enjoys a wide repertoire from baroque to contemporary music with an eye on the historical performance practice.
Bart has worked with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, the Brussels Philharmonic, B’Rock, Il Gardellino, Brandenburger Symphoniker, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. As from this season, he will be permanent guest conductor with Anima Eterna Bruges.
He has been Chief Conductor of the Danish Radio Choir since 2016, and in 2019 he was also appointed Musical Director of the Flemish Radio Choir.
He is also a regular guest conductor with many top-ranking vocal ensembles, such as the Netherlands Chamber Choir, Cappella Amsterdam, the Netherlands Radio Choir, the MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig, the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, the NDR Chor Hamburg, the Rundfunkchor Berlin, Collegium Vocale Gent, Netherlands Bach Society and the BBC Singers. He has worked with composers Steve Reich, Tan Dun, James MacMillan en Kaija Saariaho.
Vlaams Radiokoor
Flemish Radio Chorus; = VRK) is a professional chamber choir whose programme includes works from the entire repertoire, with a special emphasis on Flemish and contemporary music. Every season, the choir also commissions works from a number of Flemish composers. Starting in the 2005-2006 season, the Vlaams Radio Koor will be rehoused in the Flagey building.
The VRK was established in 1937 by the Belgian national broadcasting corporation, the INR/NIR. Since 1998, when the VRK was privatised, it has evolved from a studio ensemble into a concert ensemble. The 24 professional singers are led by chief conductor Johan Duijck. Leading international conductors also frequent the VRK: well-known guest conductors such as Kaspars Putnins, Bo Holten, Laszlo Heltay, Paul Hillier and Hervé Niquet enjoy working with the choir.
The VRK performs throughout Flanders. As well as its own ongoing performance cycles in Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent and Leuven, the choir works in close partnership with the Hasselt Cultural Centre, De Maalbeek Cultural Centre in Brussels,’t Getouw Cultural Centre for the Abbey Concerts series, Leuven Cultural Centre and Flagey. A number of ensembles regularly invite the VRK to work with them on their productions, including the Vlaams Radio Orkest, the Beethoven Academie, deFilharmonie, the Belgian National Orchestra and the Flemish Opera.
The VRK has also maintained its unique status as a radio choir. Its close ties with public broadcasting result in numerous studio productions and involvement in events on radio and television. Moreover, virtually all its concert productions are recorded by Klara, the Flemish classical music channel, enabling the choir to build up a unique collection of recordings, including work by Flemish composers.
Since the 2004-2005 season, the VRK has been forming a CD collection with the Glossa label based on the great chamber choir repertoire. With BMG Music Publishing, it is working on the worldwide commercial development of its score collection, while Klara remains its partner for exploring Flemish music. Thus there are plans to record a series of monographs on Flemish composers. The CD ‘A tribute to Vic Nees’ from the In Flanders Fields collection (Phaedra CD) received the Caecilia Prize in 2003 for the best Belgian music production in 2003.
The Vlaams Radio Koor is supported by the Flemish Community, the Belgian National Lottery, the province of Vlaams-Brabant and the city of Leuven.
