Classical music
The golden age of classical music in Flanders - and more generally in Belgium - was undoubtedly the Renaissance. In the 15th century, while Flanders was part of the Burgundian Netherlands, the famous Franco-Flemish School emerged. This school revolutionized the history of music by developing polyphony - the basis of modern harmony - and then rapidly spreading it throughout Western Europe thanks to the invention of printing (of which Antwerp was a major center) and travelling composers. Among them, the most illustrious remain Johannes Ciconia (1370-1412), pioneer and grandmaster of the Ars Nova, Gilles Binchois (1400-1460) official composer of the Duchy of Burgundy, Pierre de La Rue (1460-1518) who made a career at the court of Maximilian of Austria or the famous Josquin des Prés (1450-1521) who enjoyed success in Italy before ending up as canon at Sainte-Gudule in Brussels. Another illustrious Fleming of the same era, Adrien Willaert - born in Bruges in 1480 - was the author of masses, motets and madrigals, but remains engraved in history for having been Kapellmeister of St. Mark's Church in Venice. In the 17th century, Henri Du Mont (1610-1684) became Louis XIV's maître de chapelle, working for the Chapelle Royale at Versailles, while Léonard de Hodémont (1575-1636) adopted and imported Italian innovations such as monody.
As the 19th century progressed, a wave of composers from Flanders joined the ranks of late Romanticism and Impressionism (much influenced by Debussy), and produced a salvo of works expressing the Flemish folk soul. Among them were Peter Benoit (1834-1901), famous for his operas and symphonic poems steeped in history; Lodewijk Mortelmans (1868-1952), who set poems to music, notably by Baudelaire; Arthur Meulemans (1884-1966), author of fifteen symphonies and three operas; and Jozef Van Hoof (1886-1959), composer of symphonic works as well as pieces for piano and organ. In the 20th century, Flanders was not short of talent. These include the baroque Philippe Herreweghe (conductor) and Sigiswald Kuijken (violinist and conductor), or the very contemporary and minimalist pianist and composer Wim Mertens, comparable to a "Flemish Philip Glass".
A true local passion, classical music has no shortage of stages in Flanders. Bruges is home to the region's largest institution, the Concertgebouw (a true architectural curiosity), whose programming would almost rival that of its Dutch namesake. This is where the Bach Academy and, above all, the MA Festival take place, an event specializing in early music that is as cutting-edge as it is open to the general public. In Ghent, while De Bijloke offers a fine program in a beautiful setting (the abbey grounds), it's the opera house that attracts music lovers from all over the world. Dating from the 19th century, it has retained all its Italian lustre, gilding and red velvet, and audiences come from far and wide to hear Verdi and Puccini as well as great contemporary operas. It is part of the Vlaamse Opera, a Flemish public institution created in 1996, along with the Opéra d'Anvers. Like its cousin in Ghent, the highly prestigious latter has opted for bold programming and contemporary staging. A success, with performances sold out months in advance! In Antwerp, you'll also find deSingel, an art center that programs classical and contemporary concerts.
The song
In Belgium, no matter which side of the language barrier you're on, there's a love of song. And the star of the genre among the Flemish is, of course, Arno. Well-known to the French for singing in their language, Charles Ernest Hintjens (real name) is a bit like the Gainsbourg of the country, with a face and a pen that's skin-deep, but with that melancholy Belgian je-ne-sais-quoi. In the space of a dozen albums, Arno has become the cult artist of contemporary Belgian chanson. Less well known in the French-speaking world, a wide scene of singers (often working in Flemish or English) hides behind Arno. The most famous are undoubtedly Will Tura, a hit machine for half a century; Raymond Van Het Groenewoud, renowned for the quality of his lyrics; Wannes Van de Velde, an emblematic figure of Antwerp folk and a great innovator of the genre; and Ferré Grignard, whose rebellious, gangly folk became a cult for the Belgian rock scene in the early 2000s.
Contemporary music
Forget all the stereotypes about the flat country: one of the great local specialities is... rock. Rather alternative and indie, Belgian rock exploded in the 1990s on the Flemish side with the famous dEUS, K's Choice, Hooverphonic, Zita Swoon, Ozark Henry and An Pierlé, before reappearing shortly afterwards in Wallonia with the likes of Sharko, Girls in Hawaii, Ghinzu and Hollywood Porn Stars. Unsurprisingly, one of Europe's biggest open-air rock festivals, Rock Werchter, is Belgian (it takes place in the town of the same name). Every year, the program is top-notch, and the ticket office sells out weeks in advance.
If one of the best-known links between rock and electronic music is Belgian - embodied by Ghent duo Soulwax - it's perhaps because the country has long maintained a porous boundary between the two genres. The group Telex (much inspired by Kraftwerk) in the 1970s is a good example. In the following decade, electronic music exploded in the country with the irruption of EBM ("Electronic Body Music") from Germany. Hard, black, industrial and repetitive, it was a radical heir to new wave, whose legends included Belgium's Front 242 (from Aarschot) and Snowy Red. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Belgium developed its own electronic genre: "New Beat". A response to nascent techno (in Detroit), impregnated with EBM, it was popularized in the country by the widespread use of ecstasy. Initially confined to a niche, pioneers such as Confetti's, Lords of Acid (from Antwerp), Amnesia and Technotronic (from Aalst) acquired an aura of avant-gardism in retrospect. Since the 1990s, Belgium has been a major player in global electronic music, with house and techno pioneers paving the way for current superstars Amélie Lens (Antwerp) and Charlotte de Witte (Ghent). In a hybrid genre, between electro, grime and garage, KRANKk (from Antwerp) caused a sensation in 2020 with their album Dark.
And then, of course, there's hip-hop. The pioneers of 't Hof van Commerce paved the way for rap in Flemish. Antwerp's multi-award-winning Tourist LeMC also raps in the language of Vondel. Also from Antwerp, the blackwave. collective are more in the hip-hop funk trend.
Superstars always, Flanders is also home to one of the world's best-known (and most popular) festivals: Tomorrowland. Established in 2003 in the province of Antwerp, Tomorrowland welcomes festival-goers from the four corners of the globe, as well as the most famous DJs - Avicii, David Guetta, Steve Aoki, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Calvin Harris - in an XXL funfair atmosphere. Locally, a number of venues are on a roll thanks to their programming. In Antwerp, Café Local is a must for fans of world, salsa and disco music. Alternatively, a dozen kilometers from here is La Rocca, a historic venue since it was the first Belgian club to move into the electronic music era. If you're looking for an intimate venue, don't bother, as it welcomes over 1,500 people every weekend in its two rooms. In Ghent, the Vooruit is a must, famous as much for its performance space as for its popular café. DJs (often good ones) every weekend. Another city institution, the Charlatan offers a varied program that regularly includes well-known artists.
The dance
When you realize that such contemporary dance luminaries as Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui hail from the region, you realize just how much Flanders loves choreography. A discipline whose renaissance in the country was - without any chauvinism whatsoever - initiated by an illustrious Frenchman: Maurice Béjart. The renowned choreographer from Marseilles (who died at the age of 80 in 2007) moved to Brussels in 1960 and, with the creation of his Ballet du XXe siècle and the Mudra school, gave rise to a generation of great dancers and choreographers in Belgium. Among them, the most illustrious is without doubt the brilliant Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker.
Born in Mechelen, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker shook up the world of dance in the 1980s with her debut work Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich, which laid the foundations for her unique choreographic grammar, echoing the minimalist music of Steve Reich. Still driven by the same desire to explore the dialogue between dance and music in depth, she founded her dance company Rosas in 1983, with which she established her unique practice, inspired by geometry and mathematical thought. Between 1992 and 2007, while in residence with Rosas at the Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels, de Keersmaeker created works such as Dans Drumming (1998) and Rain (2001), which would definitively establish her identity and talent worldwide. Strong aesthetic choices and an extreme degree of sophistication that she has been transmitting via the P.A.R.T.S. school(Performing Arts Research and Training Studios) since its foundation in 1995. Like her master Béjart before her, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker has spawned a number of international choreographic talents in her wake, including Saskia Hölbling, an Austrian dancer and choreographer who works extensively with the naked body, Akram Khan, who became a household name with his creation for the opening ceremony of the London Olympics (2012), and Noé Soulier, one of France's most prominent choreographers (now director of the Centre national de danse contemporaine d'Angers). But P.A.R.T.S.'s best-known - and most acclaimed - pupil is undoubtedly Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. A vibrant choreographer, he decompartmentalizes genres, working with Beyoncé, the Royal Ballet of Flanders (which he directs) and the Paris Opera to revisit Ravel's Bolero. A philosophy focused on audacity and strong themes (immigration, exclusion, etc.) inherited from one of his great influences: Alain Platel. In 1984, this choreographer from Ghent founded Les Ballets C de la B (for Ballets contemporains de la Belgique), through which he has been pushing the boundaries of dance, theater and music for over thirty years, exploring the many facets of human fragility. Another of the region's leading choreographers, Antwerp's Jan Fabre, also a director and visual artist, has been much in the news for his controversial works. Another former Fabre collaborator is Wim Vandekeybus, a choreographer who gained worldwide recognition in the 1990s with his company UltimaVez.
As for classical dance, the region's (and the country's) only major ensemble is Koninklijk Ballet Van Vlaanderen. Founded by Baroness Jeanne Brabants, a pioneer of dance in Belgium, the ensemble is now directed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and performs at the Ballet Royal de Flandre, a magnificent venue in central Antwerp. In the same city, but more focused on contemporary creation, Toneelhuis and deSingel are two of the region's most popular venues. This quality is also reflected in the programming of Bruges' Concertgebouw.
