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The Belgian conductor, Erik Van Nevel, pursued instrumental and vocal studies at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven and at the Royal Conservatories of Brussels and Antwerp. He subsequently rounded off his musical education with specialist courses in the UK, Germany and The Netherlands.
Erik Van Nevel is both founder and conductor of Currende, an ensemble that appears regularly at the major European festivals. He works in a solo capacity with the Currende Consort, and also leads orchestral concerts with, among others, his own Baroque orchestra, Concerto Currende. He was choirmaster of the Brussels Cathedral from 1983 to 2000, and there founded the Capella Sancti Michaelis.
Erik Van Nevel has led both Currende and the Cathedral choir on numerous CD recordings which have been very favourably received by the international music press. These recordings include works by G. Carissimi, Orlando Lassus, P. Philips, Heinrich Schütz, J. De Wert, Girolamo Frescobaldi, D. Scarlatti, the Bach family, Dietrich Buxtehude, Hans Leo Hassler, L. Marenzio and a series of ten CD’s providing a broad survey of the polyphony of the Low Countries. From 1980 to 1985 he was assistant conductor of the Belgian Radio Choir (Flemish section).
Erik Van Nevel teaches choral conducting, chamber music and early music performance practice at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven. Each year he gives workshops and courses and master classes for choral and ensemble singers, as well as conductors, focusing both on general choral and conducting technique and on more specific performance practices. Such courses have taken him to The Netherlands, Spain, Israel, Sweden, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, France and the UK. Erik Van Nevel has twice directed courses at the Lacock Summer School and in 2003 his programme for the Cyprus Early Music Week focused on the last generation of Flemish polyphonists, which included Philippus de Monte and Orlandus Lassus.
Since 1994, Erik Van Nevel and Currende have been accorded the title of ‘Cultural Ambassador of Flanders’ by the Flemish Community. In 1999 he and Currende were ‘Festival Stars’ of the Flanders Festival. |
