Composition

Michelino Bisceglia has been active in the musical field for more than three decades. His work has been recognised and celebrated at various international events and festivals.

Bisceglia's work as a film composer began later in his career, since then he has composed soundtracks for numerous feature films that have been screened at prestigious festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival and the Venice International Film Festival. He was the composer for the 10-part series "Thieves of the Wood", which was released worldwide on Netflix in 2020. In addition, Bisceglia has composed music for several exhibitions, including the highly acclaimed "Claude Monet Immersive Experience". He has won several awards for his work in film music, including the World Soundtrack Award Public Choice in 2014 for his work on the film "Marina" directed by Stijn Coninx. In 2022, he received another nomination for the World Soundtrack Award 2022 for his soundtrack of the Canadian-British animated drama "Charlotte", starring Keira Knightly. His most recent nomination this time was for "Breakthrough composer of the Year" by the International Film Music Critics Association - IFMCA.

Bisceglia has worked with some of the world's leading orchestras, including the Brussels Philharmonic, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, Hungarian Studio Orchestra, Galaxy Studio Orchestra and The Japan Symfonia. He has released several albums of his own compositions, including "Orchestral Works 1," which features the highly acclaimed Brussels Chamber Orchestra, the oboe soloist Piet Van Bockstal, and the AMK Choir. 
Bisceglia currently finished working on a new concerto for trumpet and orchestra, and he is set to score the soundtrack for the upcoming film "Sleep" by Dutch director Jan-Willem van Ewijk.

Bisceglia's musical talent extends beyond film and orchestral music, he is also known as a highly skilled jazz pianist. He has worked with such artists as Dewey Redman, Randy Brecker, Bob Mintzer and Toots Thielemans. On top of that, he recorded dozens of records for such renowned labels as RCA Victor, Enja Records, Prova Records and Blue Note. Bisceglia has performed at several international jazz festivals with his own jazz trio and has established himself as a versatile and accomplished musician.

For more information, consult Michelino Bisceglia's website: www.michelinobisceglia.com

Born in Hamme in 1965, he enrolled at 1986 from KCB where he obtained several first prizes (fugue 1989). In 2000 he rounded off his studies with both a Masters Degree in Music Writing as in Composition (with Rafaël D’Haene). Together with his studies at the Conservatoire he studied Musicology at the KUL which led to a Masters Degree likewise, with a dissertation on the influence of Schumann on Brahms. He teaches at KCB since 1989 (Music Writing and Composition) and also at the Academy of Music of Schaarbeek (Music History). 

His compositions are regularly performed in and outside Belgium and cover all genres : songs (in Dutch, French, German), chamber music (among them 3 string quartets and a sextuor), orchestral music (also a clarinet concerto) , music for solo instruments, choir. In 2018 his Oratorio ‘ Letters from the soul’ was performed on several occasions in Belgium and the Unites States. He gave masterclasses at several colleges and universities in Italy and the USA.
He is member of the Robert Schumann Gesellschaft Düsseldorf and  Alumnus of the Académie Royale de Belgique.
 

Peter Swinnen was born on 31 January 1965 in Lier. From 1983 to 1992 he studied at Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, where he earned first prizes in music history, cello, chamber music, composition and practical harmony. He became a graduate of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo after studying with André Laporte from 1989 to 1992. In 1993 he took master classes with Michael Finnissy and five years later with Brian Ferneyhough. In 2009 Swinnen also obtained a Doctorate of Arts from the Free University of Brussels.

From 1990 to 1997 he taught cello in various music schools, and since 1992 he has also taught analysis at KCB. In 2002 and 2004, he added Music Technology and Composition respectively. He also worked from 1997 to 2004 at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven for the ear training programme UniSono. Between 2004 and 2015 Swinnen worked on a project concerning score analysis, in cooperation with KCB and the Mathematics Department of the Free University of Brussels. In addition he worked freelance for VRT (the national broadcast cooperation) until 2008 and is regularly asked to provide the Live Electronics for various ensembles and also as sound director for CD recordings. From 2008 to 2017 Swinnen was director of KCB. In 2021 he became head of the Music Department of Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel. 

For his complete works he was awarded the 1991 CERA Prize - Youth and Music Flanders, and his opera The Petrifying Blue received the 1992 Provincial Prize for Music Composition from the Province of Antwerp. He also wrote music for the BRTN film Andres, a realisation by Dirk Greyspeirt with choreography by José Besprosvany, which won the Premio Choreografo Elettronico 1993 and, two years later, the 34th Prize Bert Leysen. For his piece Quar'l Peter Swinnen was awarded the "Prix de Musique Contemporaine from Quebec" in 1997. Twice he won the National Composition Competition of the Queen Elisabeth Competition: in 1997 with Canzone and in 2001 with Ciaccona. In 2005 the Royal Flemish Academy of Sciences and Arts awarded him the prize Laureate of the Class of Arts.

Annelies Van Parys (°1975) is one of Belgium’s leading composers. She writes solo and chamber music works as well as large orchestral compositions with a great preference for music theatre. Since 2007, as a resident composer of Muziektheater Transparant, she wrote a lot of music theatrical works. Amongst them some remarkable pieces such as RUHE, An Oresteïa and Private View, her first opera that one no less than five prizes including the Fedora-Rolf Lieberman Prize. Together with librettist Gaea Schoeters, she wrote the opera USHER, as a direct commission of Staatsoper Berlin and Folkoperan Stockholm where it was performed in resp. 2018 and 2019 with a revival already in 2020 in Berlin. The opera was nominated for the coveted Opera Awards. She also received lots of praise for A War Requiem for the Belgian National Orchestra and Collegium Vocale Ghent, with Sophie Karthauser and Thomas Bauer as soloists and Hugh Wolff as a conductor that was the closing event of the official commemorations of WWI in Belgium. Her most recent orchestra composition is a commission for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam and will be premiered in January 2021 under the baton of Matthias Pintscher.
More information: www.anneliesvanparys.be