Welcome to the website of Joachim Brackx, composer of contemporary new music. Learn more about me, about my work or about concerts I sing or where my music is played. If you have something to share with me, contact me.





17 10 08     Changes part 2
Websites aren't the only way of providing information anymore. In the reverbnation widget here you can listen to my music and see up to date information. If you want to be kept informed by e-mail, you can subscribe to the mailing list. If you like what I do and want to put this widget on your own blog/site, just click on share. And please become a fan at ReverbNation Joachim Brackx.

11 04 08     Lasciate mi morire
The premiere of 'Lasciate mi morire' for soprano, choir and tape at MuziekPodium Zeeland in Veere was a succes. Emilie de Voght did a great job singing her expressive and (very) high part and the Middelburgs Kamerkoor performed better than ever, surely encouraged by the superb concert location. I have a distinct feeling it was not the last time my music was performed there...

07 04 08     Changes
My life has been going through so many changes lately that updating my site was not a priority. I'll try to keep it up to date with renewed spring-vigor from now on! There are many new exciting composition projects to post about.

26 09 07     Stavanger Blogging
Transparant has invited me to go to the Institute for Living Voice in Stavanger, Norway. I'm leaving on friday and I'll be blogging about my experiences there on the Institute for Living Voice Blog.

24 09 07     Orchestral Dreams
Just the other day I was having some musical thoughts - it does happen - and I thought they would best be suited for development into an orchestral piece. A few days later I got a call from the Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen asking if I would be interested in writing a 20 minute orchestral piece for them. Coincidence? Surely, but I was glad to accept. Coming to a concert hall near you around march 2009. Now if I can just remember my initial idea...

12 09 07     Surrealism and New Music bis
It has now been decided what films I will be writing new music for in the project for the Royal Belgian Film Archives:
'Pour vos beaux yeux', Henri Storck, 1930, 8' and
'Images d'Ostende', Henri Storck, 1930, 11'
I'm especially looking forward to writing delicate textures to go with the very abstract patterns of waves in the Ostend sea. Home at last...

09 09 07     Birthday Boy
It was my birthday today, and what a day it was! How many times can a person hear the omnious song 'Happy Birthday' sung and played by a few top-notch early music ensembles including the great organ of the Sint-Pieters church of Leiden? I was touched and wish to thank my colleagues and Erik Van Nevel in particular. There was a nice present as well: a wonderful performance of Monteverdi's Vesperae Beatae Mariae Virginis. I sang with all my hart.

01 08 07     This is it...
Starting today I am officially a full-time composer! I took a year-long break from radio programming at the VRT and Klara to concentrate on writing, writing, writing. It's a scary but exciting thought. Luckily I have plenty of pieces to work on, so I'm pretty sure I won't get bored.

10 06 07     A last-minute trip to Paris
Oh Joy! Thanks to the wonderful work of Gudrun, I was able to attend the very last performance of 'Da gelo a gelo', the latest opera of Salvatore Sciarrino, at the Opera Garnier in Paris. An amazing work is all I can say, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. The finesse of Sciarrino's vocal writing is unequalled in contemporary music and the mise-en-scène by Trisha Brown was breathtakingly beautiful.

03 04 07     Surrealism and New Music
Another great project to work on: the Royal Belgian Film Archives will isue a DVD of work by Belgian Surrealist Cinematographers. In co-production with the Beursschouwburg and Transparant they commissioned New Music for these silent films. Annelies Van Parys, Jan Van Outryve, Eric Schleichim and myself will provide a new soundtrack for 8 or 9 of these surrealist films.

07 02 07     Nice to have good colleagues
I attended the general rehearsal of L'uomo dal fiore in bocca, the first opera of Luc Brewaeys today, and I have to say I find the music absolutely superb. Thank you Luc for showing that it is possible to write interesting new music in Flanders!

01 02 07     New Horizons
I had an interesting talk with writer Oscar Van den Boogaard today about our Opera Project. Oscar will write the libretto for what is to become my first (chamber) opera commissioned by Transparant. I'm very excited to finally write for the stage. A lot of hurdles will have to be taken before I get there, but I am very positive about this project.

16 01 07     First IvOK NewsLetter
The IvOK, Institute for Research in the Arts, has published its first NewsLetter. The article about 'TimeArt' that is part of it is the transcription of a dialogue between Jan De Vuyst, Maarten Vanvolsem, Luc Van Hove and myself about time in art, photography and music. Quite an interesting read (dutch only).

10 01 07     [ Nadir / Zenith ] + 4 in Brugge
Bart Demuyt, director of the Concertgebouw in Brugge, saw the première of [ Nadir / Zenith ] + 4 in Leuven and was so enthousiastic that he organised a second performance, this time in the foyer of the Concertgebouw in Brugge. In spite of the absence of the foto's by Maarten Vanvolsem, the performance was a great success. The acoustics of the foyer of the Concertgebouw being exactly what this piece needs, it was great to see the audience taking all kinds of strange positions to listen to my music (including lying under the staircase!). Bl!ndman [4x4] junior sax was great as ever, many thanks to them as well.

31 10 06     All that ends well...
The première of [ Nadir / Zenith ] + 4 was a success! More than a hundred people left their bed early to see and hear my latest creation for saxophone quartet and electronics on saturday morning. I would like to thank all parties involved in the realisation process of this piece: Maarten Vanvolsem, the photographer; Steven Vandervelden, Eva Wittockx and the technical crew of STUK vzw; Bl!ndman junior [4x4]sax and last but not least Mark Delaere and the organisation of TRANSIT.

03 10 06     Contemporary Music in the Low Countries
I received a few copies in different languages of the new book by Mark Delaere and Emile Wennekes about living composers in Flanders and the Netherlands. It is a very nice publication by Ons Erfdeel vzw and as you could have guessed they included a very insightful article about myself. order it here.

biography



currently writing:

Die Entführung aus dem Paradies
Whispers
Elektra