Mathieu Hendrickx studied psychology at the University of Ghent (2006-2009) and audiovisual arts at LUCA School of Arts in Brussels (2009-2013, MA).
Together with some friends from art school, he founded the film collective Messervideo. They have worked for i.a. Meg Stuart Damaged Goods, Art Brussels, Youth Orchestra Flanders, Beursschouwburg, etc. His own artistic practice is a dialogue between film and performance. Recently, he worked on a documentary project with Oleg Danilov; The Country Was Stolen.
Since several years he’s been looking at his own hands, other people’s hands, their gestures & how they relate to one another.
Until now, these observations result into props for a performance, short video sketches & texts. www.mathieuhendrickx.com

Elien Hanselaer works as an actor and theatre maker in United Kingdom and Belgium. She studied acting at School of Arts/KASK (Belgium) and East 15 acting school. Recently, Hanselaer directed The Tale of the Last Thought, a social-artistic project with 120 performers from different backgrounds, and featured in Two to Tango, a film directed by Dimitri Sterkens. Other recent theatre projects include Afropean (KVS); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (KVS); Ashes to Ashes (TAZ); Europe in Autumn (Malpertuis). Hanselaer is also part of Hobo Theatre, a British performance collective founded in 2012 that sets up participatory projects that reflect on ecologies in an increasingly interconnected world.

In September 2018, Hanselaer was awarded the Northern Bridge award to fund her practise-based research on actor training research. The research looks at co-performer empathy and how actors can “play off each other”. She recently got invested in teaching performers. In 2021-2022, she teaches at the University of Malta, Queen’s University Belfast and the International Opera Academy. Hanselaer is also a butoh, contact improvisation and Argentine Tango dancer. These dance forms have a strong influence on her work.

Tom is a theatre and opera director based in Dublin.

Most recently he directed Jennifer Walshe’s short film opera Libris Solar as part of Irish National Opera’s 20 Shots of Opera project.

Opera productions include Griselda and Tales of Hoffmann (Irish National Opera, both nominated for Best Opera Production at the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards), Owen Wingrave (Opéra National de Paris and Opera Collective Ireland), Acis and Galatea, Susanna’s Secret and The Human Voice (Opera Theatre Company), and world premieres of Donnacha Dennehy’s The Hunger (BAM, New York and Abbey Theatre, Dublin), Annelies van Parys’s Private View (Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Operadagen Rotterdam, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg and on tour), and Jürgen Simpson’s air india [redacted] (Turning Point Ensemble, Vancouver). Other productions include Mavra and The Bear (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), and Die Zauberflöte, Suor Angelica, Mavra and Renard (Royal Irish Academy of Music).

Private View was awarded the FEDORA Rolf Liebermann Prize for Opera in 2014, Best Production at the Armel Opera Festival in Budapest in 2015 and was named as one of 14 notable productions of the last three years, “which are aesthetically innovative and reflect new developments in this genre” by Music Theatre NOW in 2016.

His work as a theatre director has been seen at all the major Irish venues and festivals, and on tour to the UK, Europe, Australia and the USA. He was nominated for Best Director at the Irish Times Theatre Awards in 2007.

His productions of Watt by Samuel Beckett with actor Barry McGovern has been presented in Ireland at the Dublin Theatre Festival, Galway Arts Festival and on tour, in the UK at the Edinburgh International Festival and the Barbican Centre in London, in Australia at the Perth and Melbourne International Festivals, and in the USA at the Public Theatre in New York and on tour.

Tom was Festival Director of Cork Midsummer Festival from 2011 to 2013 and was nominated for an Irish Times Irish Theatre Award in 2012 “for original and dynamic use of local spaces at Cork Midsummer Festival”. He has previously been Theatre and Dance Curator of Kilkenny Arts Festival and Associate Director of Rough Magic Theatre Company.

His forthcoming productions include a new production of Private View for the International Opera Academy in Ghent, and world premieres of new operas by Irish composers Michael Gallen and Emma O’Halloran.

Photo: Ste Murray

Annelies Van Parys (°1975) is one of Belgium’s leading contemporary composers. She composes solo pieces and chamber music, as well as big orchestral compositions. Her great love is musical theatre. As composer-in-residence at Muziektheater Transparant since 2007, she has written a number of compositions for musical theatre. Note, for example, the remarkable productions of RUHE, An Oresteïa and Private View – Van Parys’ first opera, which was rewarded four times, a.o. with the Fedora-Rolf Liebermann Prize. In cooperation with Gaea Schoeters (who also wrote the scenario for Private View), she composed the opera USHER, at the request of the Staatsoper Berlin and Folkoperan Stockholm. The production was shown there in 2018 and 2019, and even returned to Berlin in 2020. Van Parys was also lauded for the big composition A War Requiem for the National Orchestra of Belgium and Collegium Vocale Ghent, with soloists Sophie Karthauser and Thomas Bauer. Her most recent orchestral work was created at the request of the Royal Concert Hall Orchestra of Amsterdam, and premiers in January 2021 (conductor: Matthias Pintscher).

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.

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 in Ghent, the KVS in Brussels 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, and 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 by awarding 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. In 2015 he was awarded the famous Italian Premio Abbiati. He received the award for ‘best director’.

In 1991, Joosten directed his first opera at the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (Antwerp/Ghent). He has also directed works at the opera houses of Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bern, Bologna, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, 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, Seoul, Sofia, Vienna (Volksoper & Theater a/d Wien) and Zürich. In 2005 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York with Gounod’s Roméo & Juliette. In 2018 Guy Joosten made his debut in Asia with two new productions: one for the Korean National Opera (Seoul) and one for the Japanese National Opera in Tokyo.

In addition to his work as a director he was also professor at the University of Hamburg and lecturer at university colleges in Amsterdam, Saarbrücken, Eindhoven, Maastricht and Barcelona. He teaches opera courses at the Royal Flemish Conservatoire in Antwerp and founded the International Opera Academy. He gives regular masterclasses, e.g. in Sofia and Tel Aviv.

Born in Manchester, England, Darren Ross studied at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London. In 1988 he moved to France to dance in many creations with the ‘Compagnie de Brigitte Farges’. From 1992 he dances with the ‘Compagnie Larsen’, directed by Stéphanie Aubin, on different contemporary dance pieces and opera (Armide by Luly, Orphée et Eurydice by Glück).
In 1998 he choreographed his first opera La Traviata (Nancy, Rennes, Montpellier). This started a long collaboration as movement director and choreographer with director Jean-Claude Berutti. Together they worked on La Bague Magique by Giovanna Marini (Opéra de Nancy, Théâtre du Peuple Bussang), Faust (Lyon), Rusalka (Lyon, Tel Aviv, Bilbao), La Bohème, Wiener Blut and Othello (Nancy), Le Roi Candaule (Nancy and Liège) and Tannhaüser (Bordeaux).

He also collaborated with Jean-Claude Berutti for theatre: L’île des Esclaves — Marivaux (Brussels); Le Mariage de Figaro — Beaumarchais (Liège); Beaucoup de bruit pour rien — Shakespeare, La Cantatrice Chauve — Ionesco, L’Envolée -Granouillet, Family Art — Sales (Saint-Etienne); A tu et à toi, a ‘tour de chant’ with Yvette Théraulaz (Saint-Etienne, Genève, Lausanne)…

Together with director Caroline Petrick he worked on Weisse Rose — Zimmermann (La Monnaie Brussels) and The Golden Vanity, opera for children, by Benjamin Britten (La Monnaie Brussels, Royal Opera Stockholm).

With theatre company NUNC and Benjamin Van Torhout, he worked on Raisonnez (Ghent, Antwerp) and Het geslacht Borgia (Ghent, Antwerp, Leuven, Bruges). Together with Axel De Booseré and the Compagnie Arsenic, he worked on Le Dragon and Le Géant de Kaillass (Liège, Brussels, Paris). In January 2006, he directed Mozart onvoltooid/Mozart inachevé, a co-production of Pantalone, La Monnaie (Brussels) and Dschungel (Vienna).

Darren Ross also teaches movement and dance to singers (at the Chapelle Musicale de la Reine Elisabeth of Brussels, since 2004; Musikhochschule Frankfurt; Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et danse de Paris) and actors (amongst others, students of the Ecole d’Art Dramatique du CDN of Saint-Etienne).

With director Marguerite Borie he worked on Salome by Richard Strauss (Monte-Carlo, Liège, Vienna) and Reigen by Philippe Boesmans (Paris, CNSMDP). He also signed the choreography for Requiem for the Gods, a creation by Joachim Brackx with Nabla Muziektheater, co-produced by Concertgebouw Bruges. With Ivan Fisher, he collaborated on Le Nozze di Figaro — Mozart (Budapest, New York and Berlin).

After having completed her Masters in Fine Arts in Theatre Directing at the University of Ottawa in 2011 during which she directed among others Pelléas et Mélisande (Maeterlinck/Debussy) and Medea-Material (Müller), Fanny Gilbert-Collet co-directed and co-wrote Ik Onkar, for Théâtre la Catapulte, Ottawa touring throughout Canada and prize-winner of two awards for Outstanding Production of the Year and New Creation of the Year at the Rideau Awards in 2013. During that same year she directed Les Dialogues des Carmélites presented at the Vocal Arts Festival in Edmonton. In the summer of 2013 she directed a new version of La Bohème with Opéra Immédiat in Montreal. Part of the Yulanda Faris Young Artists Program Fanny Gilbert-Collet was Assistant Stage Director for the 2013-2014 season of the Vancouver Opera. She was then given the chance to show her staged version of Savitri and Iphigénie en Tauride in April 2014 thus getting awarded the Career Development Grant of the Opera Guild from Vancouver Opera. Following an apprenticeship with Mariame Clément at the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg and with Katharina Thoma at the Theater Dortmund Ms. Gilbert-Collet got hired as fest assistant director in Dortmund for two seasons during which she was awarded the prestigious Richard Wagner Verband grant to go to Bayreuth in the summer 2016. Since the 2016/17 season Fanny proudly joined the artistic team of the Vlaanderen Opera in Antwerpen as assistant stage director creating her own version of Falstaff in the concert Sir John in Love presented both in Antwerp and in Ghent.

Piet De Volder studied musicology at the University of Ghent. Today, he works as a dramaturge at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (Antwerp & Ghent). As music dramaturge, he collaborated on the productions Lulu and the entire Der Ring des Nibelungen (staging by Ivo van Hove, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen). He published on the contemporary Spanish composer Luis de Pablo (Madrid & Milano) and on opera dramaturgy and opera critique (with Dr Francis Maes: Achter de schermen van de emotie, LannooCampus, Louvain, 2011).
During past seasons at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, De Volder was in charge of the new production of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande (staged by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet) and Der Schmied von Gent (Franz Schreker) (staged by Ersan Mondtag) as music dramaturge. He currently collaborates also with film director Philippe Grandrieux for a new production of Tristan und Isolde.

Stefaan Degand graduated as an actor at the Herman Teirlinck Instituut in 2003, and participated in several (musical) theatre performances, including Dwangvoorstelling, De Kussenman, Kreon/antagonist zkt tragedie and Zwanezang (all byTheater Zuidpool), Roestig of het bruingele geeuwen van de ziel and The Golden Boy (bothTheater Antigone), Een totale Entführung and En(de)nicht (Muziektheater Transparant), Yerma een toefeling and Liefde/zijn handen (LOD), Revue, Biedermann en de brandstichters (KVS), Het gras zal altijd geeler zijn (Het Gevolg), Burgerlijke ongehoorzaamheid (De Koe), Leven in Hel-de operette (Theater Lantaren/Venster), Wees ons genadig (De Mexicaanse Hond), Sweetheart Come and De Misantroop (Zeeland Nazomerfestival), Gilgamesj (De Theatercompagnie), Vakman (Theater Artemis), Urt!, Johannespassie, Décap (Johan Desmet), and performed with De Werf, Gasthuis, Dogtroep, Orkater and Walpurgis. Further, he performed in several television series and films, and sang in different recitals.

Wolfgang Gruber was born in Graz, Austria. He studied in Vienna and Graz. He had engagements as Assistant Director at opera companies in Graz and Essen. Noteworthy is his long-term cooperation with stage director Guy Joosten (Amsterdam, Antwerp/Ghent, Barcelona, Brussels, Essen, Oviedo, Marseille, St. Gallen). Gruber assisted Frank Castorf for a.o. the Ring-Cycle at Bayreuth Festival 2013 – 2017. He assisted Patrice Chereau for The House of Death (Vienna Festival, Festival Aix-en-Provence, Holland-Festival) and Jonathan Meese for Mondparsifal at Vienna Festival and Berlin Festival. Further, he collaborated with Tatjana Gürbaca (Ring-Cycle in Vienna, Rigoletto in Bogota etc.) Peter Konwitschny (e.g. Falstaff in Graz), Michael Sturminger (Ariadne auf Naxos in Taipei), Dietrich W. Hilsdorf, Richard Jones, Anselm Weber, and others. His own theatre projects include Das Traumfresserchen and Kiss me, Kate at Aalto-Musiktheater Essen. The last production – The Maids, by Jean Gent – in Essen had to be stopped due to Corona. Finally, Gruber realized the 2016 scenic setting for Mozart in Egypt and in 2018 did the same for Mozart Goes Royal (IOA, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen).