FESTIVAL CHAPEL FOR EUROPE – Onironesia | JP Van Hees, Hilke Bauweraerts | diatonic accordion, chant, bagpipes, flutes and voice

The Festival Chapel for Europe is back !! A series of 5 concerts by talented young artists and celebrated musicians right in the heart of the EU. Every Wednesday evening at 19:00, starting on the last week of September.

We have the pleasure of inviting you to the 5th edition of our Festival Chapel for Europe, organized jointly with Pro Musica Pulchra.

The second concert on Wednesday, 04.10.2023 at 19:00 at the Chapel for Europe:

HILKE BAUWERAERTS, diatonic accordion , chant, text | JEAN-PIERRE VAN HEES, musette bag, chant – ONIRONESIA, Un nouveau programme avec de la musique et des mots

ONIRONESIA – du grec | van het Grieks | from Greek
óneiro = rêver | dromen | dream
nisiá = archipel | archipel | archipelago

PRÉLUDE
Une rose est née – ballade | Jean Pierre Van Hees
SAINT KILDA
Rondo for St Kilda | Jean Pierre Van Hees
Jig & Reel for St Kilda | Jean Pierre Van Hees
The first day of spring | Jean Pierre Van Hees
The St Kilda wedding | traditionnel écossais
MALTE
Et je sais – valse | Hilke Bauweraerts
Malta – mazurka lente | Hilke Bauweraerts
MALLORQUE
Dry Stone – polka | Hilke Bauweraerts
Le Deuil de la Mer – ballade | Jean Pierre Van Hees
ILES DE FRANCE
Crême de musette – valse | Jean Pierre Van Hees
Sur les doigts de ta main-mazurka à cinq temps| Jean Pierre Van Hees
Rondo en couple – | Hilke Bauweraerts
Vent d’Autan – Gigue | Jean Pierre Van Hees
Choral | Jean Pierre Van Hees

ONIRONESIA is the name we’ve chosen for our new project, which evokes distant horizons that invite you to dream and travel, places that are ideal for escaping within yourself or elsewhere, through a kaleidoscope of music and words. Travel, poetry, and the way we feel about life are the ingredients of this new blend of sounds, which combines our musical compositions with texts by Jean-Pierre Van Hees in a series of tableaux.

Please be on time or come a bit before 19:00, in order to make certain a good seat.

Hilke BAUWERAERTS – Brought up in a family where music is omnipresent, Hilke developed her taste for and interest in music from an early age. Her roots led her naturally to the study of music. First at the Schilde Music Academy, then at the Leuven University College of Arts, Lemmens campus, where she obtained a master’s degree in music therapy.

A multi-instrumentalist from an early age, it was nevertheless the diatonic accordion that became her instrument of passion, which she studied on her own at the age of sixteen. She went on to perfect her skills on courses with Didier Laloy, Anne Niepold, Martin Coudroy, Simone Botasso, Stéphane Milleret, Aurélien Claranbaux, and Emile Verstraeten. Her instrument is the work of French instrument maker Bertrand Gaillard.

Her live experience began with her first band ‘Sakura’, which won the Lindeboom Festival prize in 2011 and produced the CD ‘The Bea(s)t Inside’. She has performed for several years with Duo Brabants Bauweraerts and Aidreann. Hilke is a creative musician and composer who loves a challenge and strives to give each piece the right energy. She currently plays in Hidrae (CD 2020), Duo Bauweraerts Van Hees (CD 2017), Marvara (CD 2021), Tal en Thee theatre company, Threo, … . She teaches at the music academies of Herentals and Mortsel and at the Musart! musical humanities in Hasselt. She also gives workshops for the KIDconcerten of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, as well as folk music courses in Kalmthout and Gooik and for the Wisper organization.

Jean-Pierre VAN HEES – Born in the multicultural environment of the industrial basin of Liège, the Belgian-Dutch piper and flutist Jean-Pierre Van Hees discovered traditional European music and dance at an early age, in the 1960s. It was as a musician leading the dance that he made his debut, in a field that would become Folk music ten years later. He was soon recognized as a virtuoso on the bagpipes, an instrument with which he went on to enjoy an exceptional career, not only in the world of folk music but also performing in chamber music and opera with the greatest orchestras and soloists, in a repertoire ranging from Gregorian to contemporary music.

In 1971, together with Remy Dubois, he founded “Les Zûnants Plankèts”, the first revivalist group to perform Walloon folk music, with whom he recorded his first LP. He then went on to perform with pillars of the traditional music revival such as Claude Flagel and Wannes Vandevelde. In 1979 he joined the legendary group RUM, with whom he embarked on an international career, producing two LPs featuring several of his own compositions.

In 1974, the Musée des Instruments de Musique in Brussels entrusted him with the first bagpipe courses in Belgium. Thanks to his initiatives and unceasing efforts, from 1989 onwards bagpipe and folk music courses were gradually introduced into the music education system. In 1992, he was one of ten participants from a hundred candidates to obtain the C.A. de professeur – director, specializing in ‘traditional music’ (BAC + 4), awarded by the French government in Paris.

From 1975 to 1985, he ran bagpipe courses for the Académie Internationale d’Eté de Wallonie in Neufchâteau. From 1985 to 2006, he was responsible for programming and directing traditional dance and music courses, which became a flagship sector of the institution under his guidance. Throughout his teaching career, he has initiated new courses in academies in the French-speaking community of Brussels and Wallonia (Bruxelles ville – Ixelles – Woluwé Saint Lambert – Eghezée), in the Dutch-speaking community (Gooik) and in Germany (Musikschule Carl Stamitz – Köln Porz). In 1999, he created a world first by opening a bagpipe class at a higher music conservatoire (Leuven University College of Arts – Lemmens Campus), following in the footsteps of the conservatoires of Vigo and Glasgow.

He is one of the leading figures in the revival of baroque bagpipe music, performing all over the world with renowned ensembles (Les Arts Florissants, L’Orchestre du XVIIIe siècle, Le Concert des Nations, Chicago, and San Francisco Symphonies, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre d’Europe, etc.) in prestigious venues (Paris Opera House, Vienna Musikverein, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Bunkamura Tokyo, etc.).

Jean-Pierre Van Hees composed the original music for the documentary on the Scottish archipelago of Saint Kilda – “Au bord du monde” – by Belgian filmmaker Sylvestre Sbille. He is also the author of the most extensive study ever devoted to bagpipes, “Cornemuses, un infini sonore”, published by Coop Breizh (F), the culmination of decades of musicological research, for which he was awarded the title of Doctor of Arts at the K.U.Leuven, an academic distinction that crowns an extraordinary self-taught career.
Under the pen name Pierre-Marie Dumont-Saint Martin, he has published two novels with Lilys Editions.

The ONIRONESIA project with his young accomplice Hilke Bauweraerts is a new departure, several years after the production of the album FLY-IN, which received unanimous critical acclaim. Their intergenerational duo have overcome the COVID ordeal, and are back on the road again with a new concept and new horizons.

Last year, we were unable to hold this festival due to a lack of financial support from the authorities. This year, the authorities will be making a modest contribution so, we need your participation and we count on your generosity after the concert.

If you think music culture is important, please support Pro Musica Pulchra.
For more information: https://www.promusicapulchra.eu/en/