Kristin De Smedt

Kristin De Smedt was born in Asse on 12 October 1959. After initial studies at the academy in Asse, she completed her musical education at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. She began her studies there by combining an instrument (violin) with theoretical subjects, but subsequently concentrated completely on the written disciplines: harmony with Peter Cabus and counterpoint and fugue with Rafaël D’Haene.
Besides the diplomas that she has earned, De Smedt has been distinguished with a number of awards, including the Gevaert Prize for fugue, the Horlait-Dapsens Prize and the Marguerite Koenigsberg Prize for music history. She continued her studies, earning a meestergraad in composition and the composition diploma in the class of composer Rafaël D’Haene. As a composer, Kristin De Smedt won the composition prize of the Royal Flemish Academy for Sciences and Arts of Belgium in 1999, for her String Quartet (1998). For a number of years, she has been a teacher of written harmony at the Academy for Music, Word and Dance in Sint-Niklaas, and of composition at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven. Since 1985 she has taught harmony, counterpoint and fugue at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, where she has also taught composition and coordinator of the composition department. Many of her compositions are regularly heard on major concert programs. Her work has been premiered as part of Ars Musica and in other prestigious concert cycles.