Michiel Delanghe made his professional debut as conductor with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y Léon in 2014. This was followed by engagements with the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya and the Orchestre National de Lille. He was guest conductor at most major Belgian orchestras. 

Michiel is passionate about the lyrical repertoire and all scenic, dramaturgical and production aspects of opera. He was assistant conductor at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen with conductors such as Fournillier, Pouspourikas, Smits, Kessels and Pérez. As a conductor, he led the OBV orchestra for the productions Banket! (director: T. Goossens) and more recently Kruistocht (director: J. De Smet). 

In the 2023-’24 season, Michiel made his debut at De Munt for the creation of the opera Ali (Grey Filastine). In addition, he toured with the production FAUST (deCompagnie, Theater Arsenaal/lAzarus and De Maan). During the quiet Covid-19 era, Michiel graduated as full-time Master of Business Administration at Vlerick Business School.

Hein Boterberg is Head of Music and repertoire 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 series Vocal 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.

Maurice Cassiers studied drama and music at the Studio Herman Teirlinck in Antwerp. After several years as an actor and drama teacher, he decided to venture into the corporate world, adding his perspective and experience from the artistic world to Telenet’s employer branding and internal communication strategies. Meanwhile he continued performing as a singer in the Flemish festival and cultural centre circuit.

But the theatre kept beckoning Maurice back, and in 2021 he took his newly gained corporate experience and first put it to good use at De Mensen, coordinating their theatre division, before finally ‘coming home’ to the International Opera Academy, to help write and document the exciting new chapters of our story!