Martin Valcke was born in 1963 in Poperinge. He received his first music lessons from his father and went on to study solfège, cello and chamber music at the Municipal Music Academy in Ieper and the Municipal Conservatory in Bruges. He subsequently attended the Lemmens Institute in Leuven, where he graduated with a diploma (Laureaat) in cello and also earned first prizes in solfège, harmony, cello, practical harmony, counterpoint and fugue. He studied composition with Luc Van Hove and received his Master in Music diploma in 1996 magna cum laude, with a specialisation in composition. At present he teaches keyboard improvisation at the Lemmens Institute in the music therapy department, and he also provides the musical guidance and support for students in the spoken word department. As a cellist and pianist, he toured for several years with the theatre group De Frivole Framboos. As a pianist he is now a member of the salon ensemble Elixir d’Anvers, and he plays cello in the Baroque ensemble Aramos. He is also active as an arranger and a composer. As arranger he works with both classical music and jazz and pop music, producing arrangements for such ensembles as Il Novecento, Prima La Musica and the Walter Boeykens Ensemble. As a composer he has received commissions from, among others, Radio Klara (Flemish classical broadcaster) and Drielink (youth classical broadcaster), the Rubio String Quartet, Flanders Recorder Quartet and the Beethoven Academie. A number of his works have also won prizes. His Opus 1 for 12 solo strings (1990) won the first and the second prizes of the 1990 Wendungen composition competition and with his String Quartet (1995) he was honoured with the 1999 Prize for Contemporary Music, awarded by the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec in Canada.

Selective bibliography
- Componisten van nu. Componisten van bij ons: werkzaam in België, Vlaanderen, ... Muzikamp, compiled by T. HENDRICKX, 1992, p. 40-46
- K. VAN DEN BUYS, De Levenskracht van Martin Valcke, in Muziek en Woord, 16, november 1990, p. 38
- L. VEREERTBRUGGHEN, Lik verf op meesterstuk, in Muziek en Woord, 27, november 2001, p. 18-19

©2002 Eva Demeyer, for Flanders Music Centre and MATRIX

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