Flanders Music Centre is now Kunstenpunt / Flanders Arts Institute.

Peter Vermeersch

The career of Peter Vermeersch, born in 1959, has not followed the accustomed paths of classical music.

He was educated as an architect but ultimately chose the life of a musician-composer. During and after his studies he played clarinet and saxophone in the group Union, which gave performances and played music. In the early 1980s, Union came into contact with the theatre group Radeis and provided the musical support for Echafaudages. Josse De Pauw (from Radeis) put Vermeersch into contact with the film-maker Thierry De Mey who, himself a budding composer, stimulated Vermeersch to start writing music.

A crucial point in Vermeersch's development was Rosas danst Rosas, the first dance production made by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker in 1983 for the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. This production would provide a forum for a number of musician-composers, such as Walter Hus (1959), Thierry De Mey (1956) and Eric Sleichim (the stage-name for Eric Michiels) (1958). Together they formed the group, Maximalist! in 1984, which aimed to connect with more popular genres, partly through their concert attire (preferably black, typical for subcultures at the time) and their energy on stage. The music they played was also not immediately classifiable, either as classical or as pop.

In 1988, Maximalist! ceased operations and Vermeersch set up X-Legged Sally. A first CD recording was realised under Bill Lasswel and was recorded in New York for the avant-garde label, The Knitting Factory. Various other CD recordings followed, a number of which where linked to ballet productions by Wim Vandekeybus (including Killed by Charity, Slowup, Fired and Bereft of a Blissful Union). This music can best be described as pop music, varying from rock through funk, jazz and metal to full-blown oompah music. At first the numbers were purely instrumental, with vocals added only in later works (starting from The Land of the Giant Dwarfs).

At this time, Vermeersch also produced music for theatre productions (with Walpurgis, Kaaitheater, De Roovers). This music tended to fall into more recognisable contemporary classical genres.

After X-Legged Sally disbanded at the beginning of 1997, Vermeersch started two new groups. A Group is a small ensemble which aims to perform good rock numbers with suggestive texts. This group stopped existing in 1999. The larger Flat Earth Society is a big band that plays both music of the 1930s and arrangements of X-Legged Sally numbers.

Finally, it should also be mentioned that Peter Vermeersch, together with Pierre Vervloesem, has also won his spurs as a music producer, working with such groups as dEUS, Mad dog loose, Nancy, Think of one, and L Santo.

Selective discography

	Weg / Heruitgave (2011) theatre music Josse De Pauw, Peter Vermeersch, Pierre Vervloesem		Die Austernprinzessin (2007) Big Band jazz Peter Vermeersch, Peter Vermeersch, Flat Earth Society
	De oplosbare vis (1995) theatre music Peter Vermeersch, Walpurgis		Thierry De Mey - Undo (1991) 20th century, 21st century / contemporary Géry Cambier, Thierry De Mey, Dirk Descheemaeker, Jean-Paul Dessy, Jean-Luc Fafchamps, Vincent Jacquemin, Georges-Elie Octors, Alain Pire (...)

Selectieve discografie als componist

	Bl!ndman collected (2013) 21st century / contemporary, 20th century, classicism, Baroque, early music Eric Sleichim, BL!NDMAN, Roy Nathanson, Steve Lacy, Ned Rothenberg, Johann Sebastian Bach, Leoninus, Perotinus (...)		Novecento - Maximal Bl!ndman (2012) 21st century / contemporary BL!NDMAN, Thierry De Mey, Peter Vermeersch, Fabian Coomans
	Die Austernprinzessin (2007) Big Band jazz Peter Vermeersch, Peter Vermeersch, Flat Earth Society		Happy new ears 2005 (2005) 21st century / contemporary Esther Venrooy, Diverse uitvoerders, Peter Vermeersch, Kapotski, Galatasaray, Manu Holterbach & Sophie Durand, Mathieu Delvaux, Kim Gordon, Ikue Mori & DJ Olive (...)
	Max!mal - Live in Frankfurt - Bl!ndman (2004) 20th century BL!NDMAN, Thierry De Mey, Walter Hus, Eric Sleichim, Peter Vermeersch		Prima La Musica (2002) 21st century / contemporary, 20th century, romanticism, classicism Prima La Musica, Dirk Vermeulen, Luigi Boccherini, Joseph Haydn, Jan Van Der Roost, Johannes Brahms, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Franz Schubert (...)
	Vierkant Muziek - 2001 (2001) classical Greetings from Mercury, Boenox, Flat Earth Society, Oxalys, Prometheus Ensemble, BL!NDMAN, LOD, Spiegel Strijkkwartet (...)		Megadisc a catalogue (1998) classical Karel Goeyvaerts, Geert Logghe, Thierry De Mey, Peter Vermeersch, Patrick De Clerck
	X-Legged Sally - The Smith Quartet (1997) 21st century / contemporary, Jazz X-Legged Sally, Smith Quartet, Peter Vermeersch, George Van Dam		November Music 1997 - Third Stream (1997) 20th century Bart Maris, Peter Vermeersch

Author of

	Voor wat je ook zingt, moet je in jezelf graven

Selectieve discografie als medewerker

	Johan De Smet - Requiem Euthanasia (1996) 20th century Het Goeyvaerts Consort, Johan De Smet, Marc Michael De Smet

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