Hein Boterberg is Head of Music and vocal coach at the IOA and works as a visiting vocal coach at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester (UK). He is also an acclaimed accompanist for song recitals.

He studied at the Conservatoire in his birth city of Ghent. At the Royal Scottish Academy and the London Guildhall School of Music and Drama he specialised in singing accompaniment. He was also holder of the Geoffrey Parsons Junior fellowship at the Royal College of Music.

In de Munt | la Monnaie in Brussels, he assisted Antonio Pappano and Renato Balsadonna and worked in productions with singers such as Susan Graham, José van Dam, Jonas Kaufmann and Joseph Calleja. He has also played for conductors such as Kazushi Ono and Alessandro de Marchi. In addition to this, he has worked with singers for the Filharmonie, the Flemish Radio Choir, the Flemish Opera, Covent Garden, the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and the Collegium Vocale, Ghent.

In song recitals he has played in Europe, Asia and Australia in venues such as the Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room in London, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and many more, for singers such as Sophie Karthäuser, Christian Immler, Malin Christensson, and Jonathan Lemalu. In 2006 he started the recital seriesVocal Journey, for which he devised and played concerts with young singers from all over the world.

He was coach and pianist for singing courses in the UK, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Portugal and France. He was official accompanist for vocal masterclasses by Sir Thomas Allen, Robin Bowman, Emma Kirkby, Ann Murray, Loh Siew-Tuan, Graham Johnson and Dame Margaret Price.

After studying acting and cello, Maëlle Dequiedt graduated from the school of the Théâtre National de Strasbourg in 2016, specializing in staging. There, she creates Penthésilée by Heinrich von Kleist and Au Bois by Claudine Galea. She is assistant to Thom Luz for Der Zauberberg (Theater Basel) and Séverine Chavrier for Nous sommes repus mais pas repentis (Théâtre Vidy Lausanne – Odéon).  

In 2016-2017, she was invited as a stage director at the Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris, for which she created Shakespeare – Fragments nocturnes. 

In september 2017, she founded her own company La Phenomena which is now supported by the Cluster plan (TCI). She was then supported by the production company Prémisses and became artist associate of the Théâtre de la Cité internationale for three seasons, until autumn 2021. She created Trust-karaoké panoramique inspired by Falk Richter and created Pupilla by Frédéric Vossier in 2020 and I Wish I Was, a collective and musical production in October 2021. 

Since 2019, she has been supported by the Campus Européen de Valenciennes – Amiens and has a long-term residency in the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin. In March 2020, she created Les Noces, variations, at the Opéra de Lille, based on The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart. Thanks to the Création en Cours programme (French ministry of culture / Ateliers Médicis), she is leading Jukebox, a project that offers artistic residency and initiative in the village of Fours in the Nièvre department. She occasionally takes part in teaching workshops for high-schoolers of the CDN of Orléans, for the Educational and Proximity programme of the TNS, for choirmasters of the Opéra de Lille and for singers of the studio of the Opéra national du Rhin.  

In March 2021, she staged Trigger Warning by Marco Caramès Blanco, invited by the ENSATT. For the Lycéens Citoyens initiative, launched by La Colline – Théâtre National, she created the play Gorgée d’Eau, by Penda Diouf, in December 2021. She is preparing a stage version of Stabat Mater by Domenico Scarlatti including singers and actors with Simon-Pierre Bestion and the Ensemble la Tempête.  

Rachel Harland studied music as an undergraduate at The University of Manchester. As a postgraduate she trained at Central School of Speech and Drama and Flanders Operastudio (later IOA). She also has an LRSM in vocal teaching. She has sung with opera companies including de Munt | la Monnaie, Opera Holland Park and Carl Rosa Opera, working in Belgium, UK, Canada and the U.S. and has given solo recitals across Europe, Egypt and Australia including for The International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, Theatrical Adventures cruises and Flanders Music Festival. In addition to teaching at the IOA, Rachel is the director of Sing Salon, which organises singing events, groups and team building in Belgium and the U.K. Other educational work includes work as an English coach at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, teaching singing at Liverpool University and leading music and vocal workshops for Music in Prisons, Manchester International Festival in collaboration with Studio Orka and Aldeburgh Music.

Guy Joosten started his career as a stage director and the artistic head of the Blauwe Maandag Compagnie theatre collective. He also directed plays at the NTG, the KVS and the Brussels Kamertoneel, as well as for various companies in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Groningen). 

At the age of 28 he made his debut at the Burgtheater in Vienna; a year later he became the head director at the Thaliatheater in Hamburg.  

In 1989 he was awarded the Theatre Festival Prize in Rotterdam for his directing of Lars Noren’s play Nachtwake and received the Belgian Thalia Prize for his work with the Blauwe Maandag Compagnie.  

In 1999 the Flemish authorities honoured him with the title of Cultural Ambassador of Flanders for his opera directing. In 2010 he received the Prix de L’Europe Francophone/grand prix de la critique in Paris. 

He received the Premio Franco Abbiati /Melior Regista for his production of Elektra in Bologna (2015). 

In 1991 he directed his first opera at the Flanders Opera (Antwerp/Ghent). He has also directed works in the opera houses of Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bern, Bologna, Brussels, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Genève, Göteborg, Hamburg, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Leipzig, Lisbon, London (English National Opera), Liège, Madrid, Maribor, Marseille, Monte Carlo, Montpellier, Oviedo, Sankt Gallen, Rouen, Saint-Étienne, Sofia, Vienna (Volksoper and Theater a/d Wien) and Zürich. In 2005 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York with Gounod’s Roméo & Juliette.  

Guy Joosten made his debut in Asia in 2018 with productions in Seoul (Korean National Opera) and Tokyo (Japanese National Opera-Nikikei). 

In addition to his work as a director, he was also a professor at the University of Hamburg and a lecturer at university colleges in Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Saarbrücken, Maastricht and Barcelona. He teaches the opera course at the Royal Flemish Conservatoire in Antwerp and founded the International Opera Academy in Ghent where he is the general manager since 2013.  

He gives regular master-classes, e.g. in Antwerp, Sofia, Tel Aviv, Leipzig and Madrid. 

Cara Van der Auwera was born in Brasschaat, 1981. Cara studied at a programme for Arts Education (dance, music, theatre) in Antwerp, and continued with a degree for classical singing at the Conservatory of Antwerp and Ghent.

Cara became famous as a singer for the band Spring in 2003. She played the character of Chantal in the Ketnet series Spring (since 2002). She left the band and the series in 2006. She presented a television programme for children, and a touristic programme on the channel Vitaya. She did voice-overs for the cartoon series De Drakenjagers (‘The Dragon Hunters’) on the Ketnet channel, and for several characters in the movie Robots. From September 2005 onwards, she appeared on VT4 as one of the channel’s announcers.

She was a co-presenter in the programme Huizenjacht (‘House Hunting,’ 2006-2010). In 2007, she presented Schoondochter gezocht (‘Looking for a daughter-in-law’). After House Hunting, she became news anchor at the VT4 programme Vlaanderen Vandaag (‘Flanders Today’, 2009-2011). In 2012, she transferred to the VRT channel, as a reporter for Iedereen Beroemd (‘Everybody Famous’).

In June 2014, Cara started at the classical radio channel Klara (VRT). She presented Espresso, Klara zoekt Academie (‘Klara is searching for Academy’) and Klara Serveert (‘Klara serves’). From 2019 until June ’22, she created and presented ‘Caramba’ on Klara, followed by Django and Music Matters – programmes she presents until today.

From 2017 to 2021, she presented the television programme Wonen (‘Living’) for the regional channels TVL, ATV and TV-Oost.

In November and December 2017, she participated in the successful reunion concert series Spring Throwback Thursday, in the context of 20 years of Ketnet at the Antwerp concert hall Sportpaleis. A repeat of these concerts is planned for December 2022.

Carlos Wagner was born and brought up in Caracas, Venezuela. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He has worked as an actor both on stage and in film. Being fluent in German, Spanish, French, Italian, and English, he has written singing translations of Mefistofele (Boito) and Tristan und Isolde (Wagner) for the English National Opera in London. After a workshop with Ruth Berghaus in Berlin however, he decided to dedicate himself to directing opera and theatre. 

He has worked at major Houses like: The Royal Opera House in London, El Gran Teatro del Liceo in Barcelona, The Opéras Nationales de Lorraine, de Nantes, de Bordeaux and Montpellier in France, The Aalto Theater in Essen, Gärtnerplatz Theater in Munich, Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Leipzig in Germany, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Antwerp, The National Opera of South Korea and The Festival of Arts and Ideas in Connecticut USA. He has also staged two large open air events in front of the Cathedral of St. Gallen in Switzerland. 

Operas he has directed include: Angels in America (Eötvös), Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini), Carmen (Bizet), La Damnation de Faust (Berlioz), Don Giovanni (Mozart), Le Duc d’Albe (Donizetti), Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky), The Fall of the House of Usher (Glass), Der Fliegende Holländer: Lohengrin, Siegfried & Götterdämmerung (Wagner), Der Freischütz (von Weber), Le Grand Macabre (Ligeti), Lotario (Händel), Macbeth, Luisa Miller & I due Foscari (Verdi), Notre Dame (Schmid), Powder her Face (Adès), The Rake’s Progress (Stravinsky), The Rape of Lucretia (Britten), Salomé (Strauss), Tosca, La Bohème & Trittico (Puccini), La Vie Parisienne & Geneviève de Brabant (Offenbach) and Werther (Massenet) amongst many others. 

He also staged El Palacio Imaginado (Paredes), La Cabeza del Bautista (Palomar), Il Medico dei Pazzi (Battistelli) and Julie & Jean (Schedl), all world premières for the Gran Teatro del Liceo, Opéra Nationale de Nancy, Musik der Jahrhunderte, The Festival of Arts and Ideas and Neue Oper Wien. 

Filip Rathé (1966) graduated at the Conservatory of Ghent for piano and choir conducting. He obtained his Master’s Degree in Musicology with professor Herman Sabbe at the university of Ghent. Today, he is a lecturer at the Music Schools of Higher Education in Ghent and Antwerp.

He has been the artistic director and conductor of SPECTRA since 1993. This ensemble of contemporary music performed concerts in Europe and South America and premiered over 130 new compositions.

Rathé also acted as guest conductor at the Symphony Orchestra of Flanders, the Flemish Radio Choir and several ensembles, a.o. I Solisti del Vento, Hermes Ensemble, the Aquarius Ensemble (N) and Musiques Nouvelles.

His compositions include: Canção do Caminho (SSAATTBB; 1998), O ultimo poema (ensemble; 2001), Das Utopias (17 string players; 2003), Canção de vidro (16 voices; 2004) and La velocidad de las Tinieblas (amplified voice and ensemble; 2005). At the request of Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart he is creating a cyclus No marmore de tua bunda for six solo-voices. His works were performed a.o. by the Flemish Radio Choir, ASKO (N), SPECTRA, Collegium Instrumentale Brugense, Exaudi, Kremerata Baltica and Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart.