Edition: I

Career

Several of Bart Vanhecke’s pieces have been programmed in contemporary music festivals such the Ars Musica festival in Brussels (a.o. “Monodie” for piano by Jan Michiels in 1996, “Dans les plis des nuages” for two violins and small ensemble by the ensemble Oxalys in 1999, and “Que l’aube apporte la lumière” by the Danel quartet and Jan Michiels in 2008), The ISCM World New Music Days (“Les Racines du monde” for piano in Yokohama (Japan) in 2001,“Des cercles sur les eaux” for harp, ensemble and live electronics in Basel by harpist Consuelo Giulianelli and the Ensemble Phoenix Basel conducted by Jürg Henneberger in 2004 and “Dans l’eau du songe” for bass clarinet, cello and piano by the Ensemble Recherche in Stuttgart, the Transit Festival in Leuven (“Comme un flocon de neige” for flute and ensemble by Mike Schmidt and the Ictus ensemble, the first version of the piano quintet “Que l’aube apporte la lumière” by the Danel quartet and Jan Michiels in 2007, and “Après la pluie” for piano and live electronics bt Frederk Croene in 2009) as well as the Festival of Flanders. The programme of the Festival Gent-Moskou (1997) featured three of his works (a.o. “Tout près de l’eau” by mezzo Lucienne Van Deyck and the Ictus ensemble). In 2004 Bart Vanhecke wrote the mini opera “Icarus” (commissioned by Muziektheatercollectief Walpurgis). This piece was first performed the same year during the Klara festival in Brussels. His two piano pieces (“Monodie” and “Les racines du monde”) were performed during the PianoMania festival in Gent, Budapest and Bratislava in 2004-2005 by pianists Frederik Croene and Gabor Csalog. In February 2008, counter tenor Daniel Gloger and the Spectra Ensemble (conducted by Filip Rathé) premiered “La hora de la luz” for counter tenor, ensemble and live electronics, a piece that was given the ISCM-Flanders quality label. The Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and flautist Toon Fret performed the mini opera “Icarus” in February 2009. The piano quintet “Que l’aube apporte la lumière” was rewarded with the prize for music composition of the Provincie Vlaams-Brabant in 2008. A portrait CD with eight of Bart Vanhecke’s works performed by Het Collectief and Walpurgis was released in September 2008. This CD was nominated for the Klara music prizes in 2009. In September 2009, Bart Vanhecke started the curriculum for a PhD in the arts at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent and the Leuven University. He does research on “the systematization of atonal, dissonant and amotivic composition based on interval group serialism”, a further development of the personal composition technique he has been using for all his pieces since 1997. In 2010 he received a doctoral research grant from the Leuven University, which will enable him to do full time research for the next two years.