Hans Helsen

Hans Helsen [°1989] is a Belgian composer, conductor, singer and music pedagogue. Connecting people of all ages through singing drives him, and it is the common thread throughout his work.

Professionally, Hans seeks to balance teaching, composing, and performing, based on the conviction that these different skills complement each other. He has already written compositions for many different and diverse line-ups but focuses on vocal music. In recent years, he has mainly written for young choirs. Hans won the Koor&Stem Composition Competition in 2011 with the work Parafrasie Paranoica. He is a double laureate in the European award for Choral Composers (2014 with Missa Brevis and 2020 with Sanctus Amor). His music is published by music publisher Euprint, Koor&Stem, Stringfun and Hellbling.

Hans teaches music composition at STAP Roeselare. In this school for performing arts and with the Bruges-based family of Cantores choirs, he has several choirs under his direction. As a teacher, he is also responsible for developing and teaching various educational projects at the Bruges Concertgebouw to introduce all ages to the world of classical music and sound art. As a researcher, he worked at the Leuven Lemmens Institute (LUCA School of Arts) and the KU Leuven for the Singing Sofa project, a European VOICE project to promote and support awareness of voice use and hygiene in young choirs. Currently, Hans is a member of the artistic committee for the Europa Cantat Junior 2023 festival (Ghent, Belgium).