Wouter Vandenabeele is a violinist from Ghent, who has been delivering boundary-breaking work with his classical, jazz and folk music crossover. He was classically trained at the conservatory, but was fascinated by folk music early on.

In 1996, he started Ambrozijn, a quartet that attempts to perform a fresher and more international sounding Flemish folk music. Vandenabeele, however, had more ambitious plans: with an assortment of musicians from the conservatory, jazz and Middle-Eastern musicians, he started Olla Vogala, a grand orchestra on a quest to find the perfect meeting point for jazz, Middle-Eastern, folk and contemporary music. Both projects got excellent reviews and were highly influential. Vandenabeele travelled extensively and interpreted West African and Greek influences on album ‘Chansons Sans Paroles’, a very exciting instrumental record. His pursuit of new experiences goes on.

© 2008 - Peter Vantyghem

Wouter Vandenabeele (°1970) is recognized internationally as a violonist, an arranger and a composer. The productivity of this young men living in Ghent had reached tops these last years. He had played concerts at the sides of the Senegalese traditional violonist Issa Sow, he conducted the prestigious project "Hadzidakis" for the Olympic Games of Athens in 2004 (with the singers of Madredeus) He had recorded a score of CDs, had given several hundreds of representations with "Ambrozijn", "Olla Vogala" (his orchestra of world music), and in various projects: "Bared Ataï" with which it played in Morocco and in Belgium; « Zuiderwind » (EMI) in which he collaborated with South-African musicians (concerts in Belgium and South Africa) He worked with Steve Houben, Erik Vermeulen, Savina Yanatou, Philippe Thuriot, 'Ex Tempore'... In occasions, he plays with the band "Laïs". Wouter is also appreciated as a teacher in the musical training courses "Flanders Ethno", also in the summer academy of Neufchâteau, in musical schools of Cyprus, and in the training courses of music Folk and Jazz organized by Muziekmozaïek. He used to conduct the instrumental ensemble of popular music during the musical summer school of Gooik. Since September 2005, he teach folk violin in Sint-Niklaas academy and conduct the young orchestra: 'Transpiradansa'.