Tom De Cock, Nele Tiebout, Wibert Aerts

Tom De Cock is a Belgian percussionist, conductor and artistic director specialised in contemporary music. He is a member of Ictus and artistic director of Festival Kortrijk. He has collaborated with composers and artists such as Pierre Boulez, Georges Aperghis and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. He combines performance practice with research, instrument development, sound installations and curatorship.

Saxophone player Nele Tiebout studied at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel and at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Versailles. She played as a soloist with l'Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège and The Royal Band of the Belgian Guides, and played in orchestras and ensembles such as Brussels Philharmonic, Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, I SOLISTI and Ictus. Tiebout also likes playing chamber music: as a duo with pianist Sylvie Decramer and as a member of the Brussels based saxophone quartet Scarbo. 

The versatile Belgian violinist Wibert Aerts has built up a distinguished reputation as a performer of the modern and contemporary violin repertoire. He has been involved in several world premieres of works by contemporary composers such as Jean-Pierre Deleuze, Mauricio Kagel, Daan Janssens, Luc Brewaeys, Frederic Rzewsky and Kee-Yong Chong. Aerts is a chamber musician and violinist with the chamber music ensemble Het Collectief.

Daan Janssens composes operas, ensemble and orchestral works, solo and chamber music, and works with electronics. His compositions are characterized by dark, suspenseful timbres, a pronounced dramatic structure and a virtuosic instrumental writing. He collaborated with ensembles such as SPECTRA, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Brussels Philharmonic and I SOLISTI. Janssens studied composition at the Ghent Conservatory with Frank Nuyts, Godfried-Willem Raes and Filip Rathé.

Jean-Luc Fafchamps is a Belgian pianist, composer and member of the contemporary music ensemble Ictus. The piano played a central role in his first compositions, before his interest for non-tempered harmonies and polyphony of timbre lead to new sound combinations. First designed for theater and dance, his work gradually shifted to concert music, performed by ensembles such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, Musiques Nouvelles and Champs d’Action.