Annelies Van Parys (b. 1975) is one of Belgium’s most prominent composers, having earned acclaim for both orchestral compositions and solo and chamber works. She also cherishes a love for the human voice, and often writes for opera and musical theatre: since 2007, most of her musical theatre work has been hosted by Muziektheater Transparant, where she is composer in residence.

She has received commissions directly from organisations including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Belgian National Orchestra, the European Union Youth Orchestra, Bozar, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, Folkoperan Stockholm, the Biennale Musica di Venezia, the Queen Elisabeth Competition, and the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, and has written for ensembles such as Ensemble Recherche (Freiburg), Ictus, KammarensembleN, Quatuor Diotima, Asko|Schönberg, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, EXAUDI, and the SWR Vocal Ensemble. Her music has been played in a wide range of European concert halls, including the Palau de la Música Catalana, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Wiener Musikverein, the Barbican Centre, Den Norske Opera & Ballett (Bergen), the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Berlin), Theater an der Wien, and the Royal Opera House, London. Her many prizes and awards include the Fedora–Rolf Liebermann Prize for Opera.

Annelies Van Parys currently works as professor of composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels, a department of the Erasmus University College Brussels.

The Antwerp Symphony Orchestra is the symphony orchestra of Flanders and is based in the new Queen Elisabeth Hall in Antwerp. Under the baton of Chief Conductor Elim Chan (from the 2019-2020 season) and Principal Guest Conductor Philippe Herreweghe the orchestra wants to move and inspire a large and diverse audience through top-level concert experiences.

Thanks to its own series of concerts in large venues, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra occupies a unique position in Flanders. The Antwerp Symphony Orchestra has also been a guest of some major foreign concert halls: the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Festspielhaus in Salzburg, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Suntory Hall and the Bunka Kaikan Hall in Tokyo, the Philharmonie of Cologne and Munich, the Palace of Art in Budapest and the National Grand Theatre of Beijing. International concert tours through Europe and Asia are a constant item on the yearly calendar.

Alongside its regular concerts, the orchestra attaches great value to developing educational and social projects, offering children, youngsters, and people with different social backgrounds the opportunity to get acquainted with the symphony orchestra from close quarters.

The Antwerp Symphony Orchestra collaborates with major classical music labels and several of the orchestra's CDs received acclaim by the professional press. The orchestra also curates its own label, focusing on the main orchestral repertoire, Belgian composers and contemporary music.

Revue Blanche is a vocal/instrumental chamber music ensemble with an unusual and richly coloured combination of soprano, viola, harp and flute. Begun in 2010, the ensemble has made rapid strides winning the VRT-Klara Young Talent Award in 2013, the YAMaward in 2016 and recording their very well received disc ‘Shelter’.

The ensemble was named ‘Revue Blanche’, after the French art and literary magazine published at the end of the 19th century. White is the sum of the entire colour spectrum and hints at the idea of the blank canvas, anxiously waiting for opinions and reflections to be written upon it. This influential idea segues smoothly into the aesthetics this ensemble focuses on, resulting in an ongoing search for interesting repertoire. High quality arrangements emphasize the diverse colours of the different instruments.

Revue Blanche has performed in major concert halls such as Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ Amsterdam, Temppeliaukion kirkko Helsinki, Nordea concert hall Tallinn, Opéra de Lille, Bozar Brussels, Flagey Brussels, Concertgebouw Bruges, deSingel Antwerp and De Bijloke Ghent. They were also invited by Klarafestival, Internationaal Kamermuziekfestival Schiermonnikoog, Big Bang Festival and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

It is clear that the ensemble’s ambitions are wide-ranging. Revue Blanche is not only a chamber music ensemble but is open to other contemporary art forms. It also produces multidisciplinary programmes fusing visual arts, dance, literature and electronic music. This hybrid approach leads to a unique way of experiencing various artistic tendencies of our musical heritage.

Martyn Brabbins was appointed music director of the English National Opera in 2016. An inspirational force in British music, Brabbins has had a busy opera career since his early days at the Kirov and more recently at La Scala, the Bayerische Staatsoper, and regularly in Lyon, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Antwerp. He is a popular figure at the BBC Proms and with many of the UK’s top orchestras, and regularly conducts top international orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and Deutsches Symphonie- Orchester Berlin.

Known for his advocacy of new music and particularly of British composers, he has conducted hundreds of world premières across the globe. He has recorded over 120 CDs to date, including prizewinning discs of operas by Korngold, Birtwistle and Harvey. He was associate principal conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (1994–2005), principal guest conductor of the Royal Flemish Philhar- monic (2009–15), chief conductor of the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra (2012– 16) and artistic director of the Cheltenham International Festival of Music (2005– 07), and in 2016 was appointed visiting professor at the Royal College of Music.