Bram Van Camp (Antwerp °1980) graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp (2003)

where he studied the violin, chamber music, composition, music analysis, counterpoint and

fugue. He studied composition under Wim Henderickx (1998-2005) and Theo Loevendie (2003-

2005) at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. His works contain solo and chamber music, ensemble

works, orchestral music (including a symphony ‘Tetrahedron’), a Violin Concerto, a Piano

Concerto and 2 song cycles (‘The Feasts of Fear and Agony’, for soprano and ensemble, and

‘Träume’ for mezzo-soprano and orchestra).

He has received many prizes for his work as a composer: in 1999 he won the Aquarius

Composition Competition with ‘Rhapsody for violin and orchestra’. In 2002 he won the BAP

prize (Belgian Artistic Promotion) awarded by SABAM, for his ‘Trio for clarinet, viola and piano’

(2000). His String Quartet (2004) and his ‘The Feasts of Fear and Agony’ (2012) were selected

for the ISCM Catalogue (International Society for Contemporary Music). In 2007 he won the

‘Jeugd en Muziek Prijs voor Compositie’ (Youth & Music Award for Composition) and in 2014 his

String Quartet (2004) won the second prize at the International Composition Contest ‘New Note’

in Croatia. ‘Music for 3 instruments was selected’ for the ISCM World Music Days 2018 in Beijing

and he was awarded with the KLARA and the SABAM For Culture Award ‘Composer of the Year’

(2019).

His compositions were commissioned by a.o. the Queen Elisabeth Competition (compulsory

wordk Semi-Final for Violin 2019), the 'Festival of Flanders', the TRANSIT New Music Festival,

'deSingel' (Antwerp) and the Ars Musica Festival. His works are performed by (among others)

the Arditti Quartet, Hermes Ensemble, I Solisti, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, the Flanders

Symphony Orchestra, Het Collectief, Oxalys, Blindman Collective, Wibert Aerts, Piet Van Bockstal

and Jan Michiels. Furthermore, his works are performed in various Belgian concert houses,

including deSingel and Amuz (Antwerp), de Bijloke (Ghent), BOZAR (Brussels) and the

Concertgebouw Brugge. His work was also programmed in London and at the Amsterdam

Concertgebouw, France, Croatia, Denmark, Slovakia and China.

His portret cd (including ‘The Feasts of Fear and Agony’, ‘Music for 3 instruments’ and

‘Improvisations’) recorded by Het Collectief in 2013 (Fuga Libera) was higly praised at home

and abroad, including 5 stars in Diapason (Fr) and The Gramophone (GB).

In creating his music Bram Van Camp always strives for a style with an intuitive starting point in

which each note can still be explained within its own consistent system. He always keeps a

musical and organic sounding result in mind. In this way, his composition system does not

constitute a goal in itself, but is used as a means to a natural sounding essence: the actual

organic music. To him composing is a quest in which he always tries to renew his style

compared to his previous compositions. On the philosophical level a clear similarity with György

Ligeti can be detected. His stylistic roots originate from Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky and Alban

Berg.

Because of his penchant for natural, organic musical freedom, his music is often influenced by

jazz music.

Bram Van Camp is guest professor of composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp and

professor at the Music Academy of Merksem (Antwerp). He is also the initiator of ‘The Times’, a

forum for young composers organized by the Hermes Ensemble, where he acts as coach each

year.