Mattijs J.F. Van Damme, composer, was born in 1975 in Bruges. After taking classes in piano and chamber music at the Stedelijk Conservatorium Brugge, he undertook advanced studies in piano, music theory (harmony, counterpoint and fugue) and composition at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. Among his professors you find pianist Jan Michiels and composers Jean and Franklin Gyselynck. During several international summer academies, such as Centre Acanthes in Avignon (France) and Bartòk Seminar in Szombathély (Hungary), Mattijs Van Damme had meaningful encounters with such composers as Jonathan Harvey, Helmut Lachenmann and Michael Jarrell, who were a major influence on his further evolution as a young composer. ‘Nescio’ for eleven strings, premiered by the Kamerorkest Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel and later, ‘Interview’ for violin solo, commissioned by the Handelsbeurs Gent and premiered by Patricia Kopatchinskaya, was as a debute enthusiastically received by the audience and the press: “...Interview sounded most convincing as this creation – with its webernian balance of musical means – fitted perfectly in the context of this refined concert...” (Knack magazine). 

Other commissions folowed for Transitfestival (Festival van Vlaanderen, Vlaams-Brabant), Holland Festival (Amsterdam) and Concertgebouw Brugge. Mattijs Van Damme lives and works in the city of Ghent and is associated to Stedelijk Conservatorium Brugge as a teacher of piano, music theory and composition. He is also associated with P.A.R.T.S., school for contemporary dance (Brussels) as a teacher of music analysis.