Dirk Van Gorp

Category:muzikant, componist, hedendaagse componist
Antwerpen, 23.10.1953
Genre(s):20ste eeuw
Instrument(s):cello
Actual/previous member of:Kontrabone

Biography

Dirk van Gorp was born on 23 October 1953 in Antwerp. He is first and foremost a enthusiastic and dynamic musician. From the age of 7 he played piano, but after several wild years as a rock and roll musician with his pop group Shub Niggurath he ultimately settled on the double bass. From 1977 to 1979 he studied double bass, harmony and orchestral and chamber music at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. As a double bass player he feels at home in all musical genres, styles and schools. He is a member of the symphony orchestra of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie and was a co-founder in 1978 of The Monnaie Bass Quartet, with which he played until 2004 when the group disbanded. He toured the world with the Dutch folk group Flairck from 1984 to 1986 and as a freelance musician he has performed with such well-known artists as Toots Thielemans, Carlos Diaz, George Moustaki, Boudewijn De Groot, Dirk Van Esbroeck, Rogier van Otterloo and Wannes van de Velde. He is also an experienced performer of world music, jazz, tango, and Baroque and film music. This is particularly evident in his 2 main artistic creations, the ensemble Kontrabone (double bass and trombone, with Koen Severens) and his collaboration with Ludo Mariën (double bass and accordion). In 1977 van Gorp won first prize in the National Competition organised by the Gemeentekrediet Bank (now Dexia), and in 1981, he won the soloist’s prize and the press prize in the international jazz competition in Amsterdam with the Dirk Stuer Trio.
Since the 1970s, van Gorp has composed works for smaller ensembles, which have been broadcast by the VRT, RTBF, NOS and BBC. He began as a self-taught composer, but later took lessons in composition with Wim Witteman and Eric Visser in Utrecht, and with Eric Van der Westen in Tilburg. He has been commissioned to write a number of compositions, by such organisations as the Flanders Festival (Ballad of the Irish Widow (1988)) and het Muziek Lod in Ghent (Fin de Siècle (1991) and Roelandslied (1992)). Van Gorp also composed the compulsory work Matanzas (2002) for the Axion Classics National Music Competition, and his work Pinokkio (1986) was played in the Higher Diploma competition for trombone in Antwerp. The CD of his own works, recorded with Kontrabone in 1988, won a prize from the Belgian classical music radio station, BRT 3.


©2005 Mattias Parent, for Flanders Music Centre and MATRIX

Work review & selective list of works: www.matrix.mu

Selective discography

Biesemans Janpieter - RetrospectiveBiesemans Janpieter - Retrospective (2010)
21st century / contemporary, 20th century
Geert Van Gele, Janpieter Biesemans, Peter Dhoore, Leo Verheyen, Alain De Rudder, Piet Van Bockstal, Peter Ickx, Lin Ching Cheng (...)
ReminiscenciasReminiscencias (2003)
20th century
Dirk Van Gorp, Ludo Mariën, Duo Ludo Mariën - Dirk Van Gorp, Marc Verhaegen, Dirk Van Gorp

Selectieve discografie als componist

ReminiscenciasReminiscencias (2003)
20th century
Dirk Van Gorp, Ludo Mariën, Duo Ludo Mariën - Dirk Van Gorp, Marc Verhaegen, Dirk Van Gorp

Author of

Dansen tot 's morgens in Blauwbossen
Dansen tot 's morgens in Blauwbossen
Orgelbouwer levert tot in Australië
Orgelbouwer levert tot in Australië

Related Items

External links:Componistenfiche Dirk Van Gorp