Belgian Music Days 2026 à Gand : Brecht Valckenaers : "Pas à pas"

Pas à pas is a journey through contemporary Belgian piano music: from earth to cosmos, from reality to dream. At the same time, the programme reflects Brecht Valckenaers’ artistic journey, featuring works by composers who have inspired and shaped him over the years, including a new composition by Pieter Schuermans written especially for this occasion.

Programme :

Karel Goeyvaerts: Pas à pas

Boudewijn Cox: Equinox

Brecht Valckenaers: The Overview Effect

Claude Ledoux: Courbes d’étoiles: VI. 

Pieter Schuermans: … Be right

Martin Loridan: Quatre fragments d’un rêve: 

I. Prélude

II. Puis la douceur

Mathias Coppens: In a Dream:

I. …Gloom Blossoms…

II. The Island of Charm

 Brecht Valckenaers (b. 2000, Leuven) is a versatile pianist and composer who combines his love for

classical and contemporary repertoire with his own compositions and improvisations.

He studied for eight years with Nikolaas Kende at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp and is

currently continuing his studies with Claudio Martínez Mehner at the Hochschule für Musik Basel

and Eliso Virsaladze at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole.

Brecht has won prizes at several competitions, including the Steinway Piano Competition,

Cantabile Piano Competition, Breughel Piano Competition, Concours de Piano Andrée Charlier,

and the EPTA Piano Competition. In 2025, he received the Third Prize and the Prize for the Best

Performance of a Dutch Work at the YPF European Piano Competition in Amsterdam. He has

appeared as a soloist with orchestra and has performed in venues such as Bozar, Flagey, deSingel,

Palais des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, and Bimhuis Amsterdam.

His compositions – characterized by a strong rhythmic inventiveness – have been featured several

times on national radio and are enthusiastically received on YouTube.

After a celebrated appearance at Festival 20·21 in 2024 with his project Ex Nihilo, Brecht is

delighted to continue his collaboration with the festival as Artist in Residence. Over the next

editions, Brecht will perform all of Ligeti’s works in which the piano takes centre stage, alongside

other projects.

His project Ex Nihilo is released as an album in February 2026 on Antarctica Records.

Driven by a desire to keep exploring and pushing his musical boundaries, Brecht approaches

music as a language to be experienced in all its forms: reading and reciting through the

performance of classical and contemporary repertoire, speaking through improvisation, and

writing through composition.

Brecht gratefully acknowledges the support of the Stichting Robus and the SWUK, with which he

is Artist in Residence.