Stefaan Verdegem

Stefaan Verdegem studied oboe and baroque oboe with Paul Dombrecht and Marcel Ponseele at the Brussels and Ghent Conservatories, and obtained a soloist diploma in oboe as well as a master degree in historical performance practice. During his study years he received the ‘Crescendo’ prize for talented young musicians.
He completed his studies with Thomas Indermühle (D) for the modern oboe, and with Michel Piguet (CH) and Ku Ebbinge (NL) for the baroque oboe.

Being an all-round musician, he combined for several years an active freelance career playing the baroque oboe with a job as English horn soloist in the Royal Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra. With this orchestra he toured throughout Europe, and made many recordings.
During the same period he recorded the complete Divertimenti of Joseph Haydn on period instruments with the Haydn Sinfonietta Wien for the Koch-Schwann label. Many of these pieces were recorded for the first time.

 For the last 15 years he has concentrated mainly on historical instruments. He is a regular member of Il Gardellino, l’Orchestre des Champs Elysées, Il Fondamento, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Les Talens Lyriques, B’Rock and Concerto Köln. With these ensembles he has performed on the five continents, and has made some 60 recordings for the Erato, Ricercar, Harmonia Mundi, Accent and Passacaille labels.

 With Anima Eterna he explores the 19th and early 20th century repertoire on period instruments. After recordings of Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony and the Nutcracker Suite, Liszt’s Symphonic Poems and Rimksy-Korsakov’s Sheherazade, a recording with Ravel orchestral pieces came out in 2007, followed by the Complete Symphonies of Beethoven and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique in 2009. A Poulenc recording has been released in 2011.

 Focusing on this repertoire Stefaan Verdegem has a growing collection of instruments. At the same time he lectures regularly about 19th century oboes, and publishes in the Galpin Society Journal (UK), The Double Reed (USA) and Rohrblatt (D).

 Besides his concert activities, Stefaan Verdegem is also woodwind coach for the NJO Orchestra of the 19th Century (Dutch Youth Orchestra performing on period instruments), and lecturer and researcher at the Brussels Royal Conservatory. In 2011 he was awarded the “Darche” prize for his research activities.