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"After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." - Aldous Huxley

Jozef de Beenhouwer

Jozef De Beenhouwer first trained as a pharmacist, but he has devoted himself entirely to music since his graduation. He started his musical studies at the age of five. From 1964 on he studied with the Belgian pianist Lode Backx (1922-2010) – himself a student of Marinus de Jong and Edwin Fischer, among others – at first privately, later at the Chapelle Reine Elisabeth in Argenteuil (Brussels) and at the Antwerp Royal Flemish Conservatory. There he obtained its most advanced degree, the “Hoger Diploma”, summa cum laude (1975). In the 1990s he studied privately with David Kimball in Florence, Italy.

He has performed as a soloist both in recitals and in works with orchestra in most European countries, in South Korea and in the USA. He is also a renowned accompanist of Lieder, performing with famous singers such as Ria Bollen, Robert Holl, Werner Van Mechelen and Nina Stemme. Finally, he is active as a chamber musician, notably in the Robert Schumann Piano Trio, which he co-founded with Kees Hülsmann and Marien van Staalen, leader and first cellist of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
Jozef De Beenhouwer has made innumerable radio and television recordings at home and abroad, as well as a number of LPs and CDs. Among the latter there are fifteen on the Phaedra label, including recordings of Brahms, of Schumann and of Belgian composers. A particularly notable one was his Marinus de Jong CD [Phaedra 92034], which included the composer’s first piano concerto. Twice he was awarded the Cecilia Prize, in 1984 for his recording of piano works by Peter Benoit, and in 1986 for his recording of piano works by Joseph Ryelandt. The latter was truly pioneering work, of which he has done a great deal.
In 1986 Jozef De Beenhouwer gave the first performance of Robert Schumann’s Concertsatz (1839) with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and in 1992, that of a concert movement Clara Schumann wrote in 1847, both unfinished works which he completed himself and which were published by Breitkopf und Härtel. In 1991 he made the first complete recording, on 3 CD’s (now available on CPO, Germany), of the piano works of Clara Schumann. For his outstanding efforts on behalf of the works of Robert and Clara Schumann he was awarded the 1993 Robert Schumann Prize of the city of Zwickau. In 2010, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of Klara, the classical-music channel of the ‘Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep - VRT’. At present Jozef De Beenhouwer is a professor at the Royal Flemish Conservatory of Antwerp and also artistic director of the Brussels Lunchtime Concerts. He is regularly invited to sit in the juries of international piano competitions.