THE UNANSWERED QUESTION - bezetting en biografieën

BIOGRAphies

Ictus

Ictus is a Brussels-based contemporary music ensemble. Since 1994, it has shared the premises of the P.A.R.T.S dance school, and the Rosas company (headed by Anne-Teresa De Keersmaeker) with which it has collaborated on fifteen productions, from Amor Constante to Repertoire Evening. Ictus has also worked with other choreographers including Wim Vandekeybus, Maud Le Pladec, Noé Soulier, Eleanor Bauer and Fumiyo Ikeda. Every year, Ictus performs in Brussels for an entire season, in partnership with the Kaaitheater and BOZAR. This season, Ictus will experiment again with programmes for a culturally aware but non-specialist audience: theatre, dance, performance and music enthusiasts. The ensemble examines formats and ways of listening: very short or very long concerts, mystery programmes, guided concerts, concerts-cum-festivals where the audience is free to roam between stages (the famous Liquid Room performed all over Europe). Ictus has shared, and sometimes amplified, current questions about the future of contemporary music. Initially led by conductor Georges-Elie Octors, at a time when ensembles saw themselves as mini-orchestras made up of highly technical soloists, Ictus mutated into an 'electric orchestra' and hired, for example, a regular sound engineer as an instrumentalist. It then became a multifaceted collective of creative musicians, dedicated to experimental music in the broadest sense. The story isn’t over.

Brussels Philharmonic

The Brussels Philharmonic was founded in 1935 by the Belgian public broadcaster (National Broadcasting Institute (NIR/INR)). The orchestra was and is known to be a pioneer in performing contemporary music – a reputation that brought world-renowned composers such as Bartók, Stravinsky and Messiaen to Brussels. To this day, the Brussels Philharmonic is continuing this tradition, including a 21st-century work in almost every concert programme. The orchestra’s historic home port is the Flagey building in Brussels, the heart of Europe, where it rehearses and performs in Studio 4 – in acoustic terms one of the top concert halls in the world – and which serves as its home base for concerts in Belgium and the rest of the world.

Tom De Cock

Tom De Cock (°1982) received his masters degree in percussion at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (2005), as well as a masters degree in contemporary music at the HfMDK Frankfurt am Main (2007), Germany. In 2009, he graduated 'summa cum laude' at the HfM Detmold in the Konzertexamen degree and obtained his 'Doctor of Arts' degree at the VUB and Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel in 2015. He received the Horlait Dapsens prize in 2007. Next to his position as percussion soloist at the Brussels Philharmonic orchestra, Tom has been working as a freelance musician in Europe, he played with Ensemble Modern, MusikFabrik, Radio Kamer Philharmonie, among others and is a fixed member of Ictus, Nadar Ensemble, Triatu, and Ensemble XII. At the moment, Tom is working as the assistant percussion teacher at Conservatoire Royal de Liège.

Lore Binon

Lore Binon did her vocal training at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, in Barcelona at the Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya, and at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Valérie Guillorit. She made her operatic debut as Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro) with the Freiburger Barockorchester under the baton of René Jacobs. During the season 2017 she sang the role of Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the Flemish Opera and she was 'voice in residence' for the Festival of Flanders Mechelen. Lore is equally active in the contemporary music field and has performed Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire at several festivals and participated in Sirènes by Luca Francesconi (Festival Musica, Strasbourg) as well as an international tour of Drumming (Steve Reich) enjoying regular collaborations with Ictus and Rosas. Lore’s rich and sensitive musical personality makes her much sought after as a soloist in symphonical repertoire as well as ancient music. Chamber music is another of Lore’s passions. She is a founding member of the ensemble Revue blanche; a quartet consisting of the rather unusual combination of harp, flute, viola and voice.

Kaoli Isshiki

The Japanese soprano Kaoli Isshiki studied singing at the Tokyo University of the Arts and at the École Normale de Musique de Paris. Her professional career in Europe began with the accentus vocal ensemble (from 1996 to 2001). Thanks to her powerful vocal technique, her musical balance, her sensitivity and her crystalline voice timbre, Isshiki is quickly recommended as a concert soloist, particularly for the Baroque, modern and contemporary music. Isshiki is frequently invited as a solo singer for vocal ensembles or instrumental ensembles such as the Ensemble intercontemporain, Il Seminario Musicale, the Ensemble 2e2m and Baroque Graffiti.

Morgane Heyse

Morgane Heyse, French-German coloratura soprano studied at the Conservatoire Royal de Liège and at the International Opera Academy Ghent. She sang the roles of Aspasia (Mitridate, Re di Ponto) as the understudy of Lenneke Ruiten la Monnaie/de Munt) and of Papagena (Die Zauberflöte at the Kunsthuis Opera Vlaanderen). With the Brussels Operette Theater, she sang the role of Ernestine (Mr. Choufleuri) and Inès (Les Bavards). During the 2017/2018 season, Morgane sang the role of Makiko for the world premiere of Pascal Zavaro’s first opera Manga-Café. In 2019, Morgane made her debut at the Volksoper Wien in the demanding role of Maid in Thomas Ades' opera Powder Her Face. She also performed at the la Monnaie / de Munt in the last opera by the French composer Benjamin Attahir (Le silence des ombres).With the complicity of her mentor, Jean-Pierre Peuvion, Morgane specialised in contemporary music and took part in numerous world premieres and festivals.

Els Mondelaers

The Belgian mezzo Els Mondelaers studied at the Lemmens Institute Leuven as well as at Ghent Conservatory. She expanded her career as a specialist interpreter of classical contemporary music to that of an all-round performer. The world of music theatre, contemporary dance and performance in addition to the contemporary concert venues became her second habitat. She has performed as a soloist with various music theatre companies, ensembles and orchestras including Folkoperan Stockholm, Muziektheater Transparant, LOD, Spectra ensemble, ChampdAction, HERMESensemble, Contempoartensemble, Nadar Ensemble, Asko | Schönberg ensemble, Koninklijk Concertgebouw Orkest and in September 2009 she was invited by the Lucerne Festival Academy to perform Berio’s Sinfonia conducted by Pierre Boulez. With sound artist Dyane Donck she forms NYX. They combine their various skills in a performance concept in which modern classical composition meets pop and electronic music. As a guest professor, she was invited by the Royal Conservatorium of Antwerp (BE) and the Academy of Music and Performing Arts Pontys Tilburg.

Kevin Skelton

Kevin Skelton specializes in seventeenth-century music, the Bach Evangelist roles, and experimental music theatre. Kevin has performed with some of the world’s finest early music ensembles including Collegium Vocale Gent, L’Arpeggiata, and Concerto Palatino and in numerous theatres and festivals throughout the world including Teatro La Fenice, la Monnaie, Aix-en-Provence, Opéra Royal de Versailles, and the early music festivals in Boston and Utrecht. Kevin is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto researching new performing practices applicable to the training, creation, direction, and performing of integrative music theatre. On the opera stage Kevin recently performed in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with the Nederlandse Reisopera, Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux Enfers in Poland and Romania, Charpentier’s Medée with Opera Atelier in Toronto and Versailles, Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria in Toronto and Tokyo, and a new creation at the Greek National Opera.

Hitoshi Tamada

The lyric tenor Hitoshi Tamada studied singing at the National University of Music and Fine Arts in Tokyo, at the Hochschule der Künste Bern and the Schweizer Opernstudio Bern/Biel, and at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart. During his studies he made his debut with the role of Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the E.T.A. Hoffmann Theatre at Sommer Oper Bamberg 2013. Since 2014 he has been engaged as an ensemble singer with ensembles such as the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart (director: Marcus Creed), ChorWerk Ruhr and Zürcher Sing-Akademie (director: Florian Helgath), PHØNIX16 (director: Timo Kreuser), NDR Chor (director: Philipp Ahmann, Klaas Stock), Gaechinger Cantorey (director: Hans-Christoph Rademann) and others. In 2017 he started to work with Collegium Vocale Gent under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe and took part in numerous tours, appearing in many of the world’s most important concert halls. Hitoshi Tamada currently lives in Stuttgart and is privately coached by Scot Weir in Berlin.