Ludo Hulshagen was born on 2 June 1951 in Hasselt. He studied Latin and Greek at the Amandina College in Herk-de-Stad. In 1969 he began his post-secondary music studies at the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp. There he earned first prizes in solfège, written harmony, practical harmony, counterpoint, fugue, music analysis and the study of form. He studied composition with Willem Kersters, under whom he graduated in 1984.
From 1971, besides his studies, Hulshagen began to teach solfège at the Tienen Music Academy. Some time later he became a teacher of harmony at the Hasselt Conservatory for Music, Word and Dance. From 1976 to 1991, he worked as a harmony teacher at the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp, and in 1983 became the director of the Tienen Music Academy. He held this post until 1987, when he became director of the music academy in Hasselt.
In 1987, he received the Cantabile Prize for his Invention for piano. Dexia Bank awarded him 3 composition commissions for the renowned National Competition for Music and Word, Axion Classics, and in 2002 he wrote A Symphonic Exploration, a commission from the Flemish Radio Orchestra.

©2005 Maarten Quanten, for MATRIX