Conductor and cellist Marc Michael De Smet (°1948) studied at the Conservatories of Music in Ghent, Brussels, The Hague and Maastricht. He received his training as a conductor from Lucas Vis. He also attended master classes with Franco Ferrara in Sienna (IT), and with Laszlo Heltay. De Smet took composition lessons with Norbert Rousseau (BE) and Louis Andriessen (NL). He has written music for theatre and more than 150 songs for voice and cello. In 1983, De Smet founded De Nieuwe Muziekgroep, a larger instrumental ensemble which he led for seven years. In 1989, he conducted the premiere series of Karel Goeyvaerts’s opera for chamber orchestra ‘Aquarius’ with the Dutch Aquarius Ensemble, and in 1995, he founded the Goeyvaerts Consort, which in 2007 was transformed in Aquarius, a chamber choir specialising in contemporary vocal music. De Smet also teached choir, choir conducting, vocal ensemble and chamber music at the Ghent Conservatory