Kurt Bikkembergs
ICCFBIO
Composer and conductor Kurt Bikkembergs was born in Hasselt in 1963. After graduating in music teaching, composition and choral and orchestral conducting at the Lemmens Institute in Louvain, he went on to further training at international master classes in Belgium and Austria given by, among others, Robert Sund (Sweden) and Timothy Brown (UK) for choral conducting, and Heinz Kratochwil (Austria) for composition. He is choir master at the Flemish Opera and choir master/lecturer at the Lemmens Institute.
He is Kapellmeister of the Brussels Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudule, current choir master of the EUROCHOR (AGEC), he conducts the Capella di Voce of Louvain, and he is a guest conductor of the Flemish Radio Choir. He is an active staff member of the EMJ at Neerpelt, of Europa Cantat (Music Consultant), and of Koor en Stem (Composition Department).
As a composer he strives to renew vocal, in particular religious music, by adding personal experiences without neglecting tradition. His compositions include all kinds of choir music, chamber and ballet music, three oratorios and a couple of cantatas, but also orchestral works. His rare leisure time is spent on freelance commissions as a composer, conductor and even singer. He has had commissions to work for festivals in Belgium (Maasmechelen, Neerpelt, Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Harelbeke, Courtrai, Watou, Hasselt , Louvain,…) and abroad, in Germany (Bottrop, Halle, Mainz), Holland (The Hague, Utrecht, Den Bosch, Breda, Arnhem), the United Kingdom (Oxford), Spain (Barcelona), Poland (Poznan) and Belarus (Minsk).
