The Belgian-born soprano, Bepke Keersmaekers, moved to the Netherlands to study Classical Singing at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Maria Acda. In June 2016, she graduated with Master of Music degree from the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Sasja Hunnego. She also attended master-classes with Ira Siff, Angela Hickey, Sergej Rybin, Margeet Honig, Malcolm Martineau, Meinard Kraak, Mauro Augustini, Roberta Alexander and Carolyn Watkinson. In April 2015, she won the incentive prize from the Miluška Duffková foundation, an annual fair for a soprano under the age of 25.
In 2014 Bepke Keersmaekers sang the role of Lapák in The Cunning Little Vixen by L. Janacek in London with Co-Opera Co. At the Nederlandse Opera Academie she performed in January 2015 the role of Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro by W.A. Mozart. In August 2015, she sang at Opera Nijetrijne the role of Despina in W.A. Mozart's Cosi fan tutte and also during the summer of 2016 she played the role of Clarice in Il mondo della Luna by J. Haydn.
Bepke Keersmaekers also regularly performs oratorios in both Belgium and the Netherlands, such as Mass in B minor (BWV 232), Johannes-Passion (BWV 245), Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) and numerous cantatas by J.S. Bach, George Frideric Handel's Messiah, Carmina Burana by Orff, Gabriel Fauré's Requiem, Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi, Miserere by Allegri, De Profundis by Marcel Dupré and Membra Jesu Nostri by Dietrich Buxtehude. She also sang the soundtrack for the Flemish television series 'In Vlaamse Velden', (In Flemish Fields), music composed by Jef Neve. In April and May 2018 she goes on tour to France and northern Spain, as a soloist with the Leids Studentenkoor en -orkest under the direction of Gilles Michels. |