Natural Horn

Jeroen Billiet (b. 1977, Tielt, Flanders, Belgium) studied at the Royal Conservatoires of Ghent and Brussels with Luc Bergé, where he passed his final horn exam with distinction in 2001. He continued his studies with lessons from Froydis Ree Wekre, and specialised in his great passion: historical instruments with teachers such as Claude Maury and Anthony Halstead. After this, he embarked on a career that took him to the most prominent early music formations: Concerto Köln, i Giardino Armonico, Il Fondamento, l'Orchestre des Champs Elysées and Irish Baroque Orchestra. From 2002 to 2009 he was solo horn of les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble led by Marc Minkowski and from 2012 to 2018 with Insula Orchestra led by Laurence Equilbey. He is currently soloist with le Concert d'Astrée led by Emanuelle Haim, les Talens Lyriques led by Christophe Rousset and with B'Rock Ghent. He also performs regularly with other top ensembles and as a soloist on both historical and modern horn types, focusing on a wide range of musical styles and genres. He has performed at almost all major European music festivals and has recorded more than 70 CD and DVD recordings in ensemble and chamber music. The internationally acclaimed solo CD "fall now blows its horn", which put the lyrical Flemish horn repertoire back into the spotlight, was released by the Phaedra label in 2010. In 2016, a second solo CD "Chants d'Amour" appeared, with works from the Liege and Brussels romantic horn tradition on the Terra Nova label.
    
Besides years of experience as a teacher at, among others, the Royal Conservatories of Antwerp and Ghent and at the Municipal Conservatoire of Bruges, he is internationally known as a researcher. In 2008 Jeroen con brio obtained the title Laureate of the Orpheus Institute, and in March 2021 he obtained the Doctorate of Arts at the University of Ghent with his dissertation on the Ghent horn school during the Belle Epoque period. In July 2019, Jeroen Billiet hosted the successful 51st International Horn Symposium, attracting more than 700 horn players from 40 different countries to the city centre of Ghent. 

Recently, Jeroen Billiet received the prestigious Punto Award from the International Horn Society, in recognition of his international career as a player, teacher and researcher. From September 2021, he will follow in the footsteps of his former teacher Luc Bergé as principal study teacher in horn at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel.