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Jeroen Billiet, former researcher, teacher
jeroen.billiet@hogent.be
classical musicprogramme
Terra Nova Collective & Jeroen Billietresearcher Joseph Ryelandt, Romantic Music in Fin-de-siècle Bruges publicationLees, kijk, luisterresearchTerra Nova Collective & Jeroen Billietresearcher Chants d'Amour publicationLees, kijk, luisterresearch
Brave Belgians of the Belle Epoque, Jeroen Billiet, completedOnderzoek
subtitle
A critical study of artistic incentives in the late-romantic Ghent horn playing tradition and its worldwide legacy
project team
Jeroen Billiet

Brave Belgians of the Belle Epoque

29.03.21, 11:00, Doctoral defense Jeroen Billiet, MIRY Concert hallresearch presentationonlineAgendaArtistic activitiesOnderzoek

In Brave Belgians of the Belle Époque, a study of the late-romantic Ghent horn playing tradition, Jeroen Billiet explored the world of Ghent horn players in the late-romantic period. From the identical standpoint of a Ghent-trained performer, he reflected within an experimental methodical framework on the people who shaped this poetically-oriented horn school with worldwide ramifications, their musical expression and instruments, and the broad artistic-educational world of the Belle Époque. The result can be read in a richly documented doctoral dissertation backed by a wide range of artistic output.

At 11 am you can watch the artistic presentation on the streaming platform Sounds of Ghent. This will take place in collaboration with the Mengal Ensemble, the horn class of KASK & Conservatorium and pianist Jan Huylebroeck, with works for horn by Adolphe Samuel, Martin-Joseph Mengal, Robert Herberigs; Joseph Ryelandt, François-Joseph Fétis and Jane Vignery.

At 2 pm there will be a public defense of the Doctorate of Arts of UGent, which can also be followed online.

livestream
www

Jeroen Billiet (°1977, Tielt) studied at the Royal Conservatories of Ghent and Brussels with Luc Bergé, where he graduated with great honors in 2001. He completed his studies with lessons from Froydis Ree Wekre and Claude Maury, and specialised in his great passion: historical instruments. After this, a career began that took him past the most prominent formations for early music. From 2002 to 2009 he was solo horn with the Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble conducted by Marc Minkowski and from 2012 to 2018 with the Insula Orchestra conducted by Laurence Equilbey. He is currently soloist with the Concert d'Astrée conducted by Emanuelle Haim and les Talens Lyriques conducted by Christophe Rousset. As a member of these ensembles he has performed at almost all major European music festivals and has made more than 70 CD and DVD recordings. The internationally acclaimed solo-CD ""fall now blows its horn"" was released by the Phaedra label in 2010, once again putting the lyrical Flemish horn repertoire in the spotlight. In 2016 a second solo CD ""Chants d'Amour"" was released, with works from the Liège and Brussels romantic horn tradition with the Terra Nova label. He is a founding member of the horn players collective Mengal Ensemble. 

In June 2008 Jeroen was awarded the title of ""Laureate of the Orpheus Institute"" con brio. Currently he is teaching at the Royal Conservatoire in Antwerp, as researcher and teacher at KASK & Conservatorium and as horn teacher at the Bruges City Conservatoire. In July 2019 Jeroen Billiet and his conservatory colleague Rik Vercruysse hosted the successful 51st International Horn Symposium with which he attracted more than 700 horn players from 40 different countries to the Ghent city centre. During the associated street festival Wake the Dragon, the Guinness World record for the largest horn ensemble of all time was broken during an impressive open-air concert on Sint-Baafsplein in Ghent.

Jeroen Billiet is a recipient of the prestigious Punto Award from the International Horn Society, a recognition for his international career as a player, teacher and researcher. 

In 2021 he obtained a PhD at Ghent University on the Ghent horn tradition during the Belle Epoque era, and was appointed as professor of horn at Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel in the same year.