Flanders Music Centre is now Kunstenpunt / Flanders Arts Institute.

Petra Vermote

Category:	componist, hedendaagse componist, koor
	08.05.1968
Genre(s):	21ste eeuw / hedendaags

Short description

Vermote incorporates drama in her compositions,
searches for colour and likes to work with the human voice and with non-Western instruments. In addition to being a composer she is also a guitarist, hence her exceptional affinity with string instruments.

Biography

"Like any other composer I have individual, specific sources for my work. I am very interested in literature and especially in poetry. Text and analyses of text, foreign languages, foreign alphabets, all of them fascinate me. I love dealing with language, with meaning and significance, with interpretations, paradoxes. As a matter of course all this becomes part and parcel of my music: works for solo voice and ensemble, music theatre… I’m an ardent opera fan, I love music theatre generally, more particularly the genre where music does not have a subordinate ornamental function but really plays a formative role by shaping the drama. On the other hand, I don’t like music that covers up its own weakness behind a mask of staging, directing and lighting. In other words: craftsmanship is important for me too, but only when it serves the artistic function. I don’t like ideologies, dogmas. I try to keep them out of my life entirely. After all, openness is the source of and the enabling condition for inspiration and capacity for work." (Petra Vermote)

Petra Vermote was born in 1968 in Izegem where she studied guitar at the municipal music school with Diane Vermeersch. This was followed by studies at the Ghent conservatory, culminating in first prizes in solfège, guitar, chamber music, harmony, counterpoint and fugue, as well as the Higher Diploma in guitar under Baltazar Benitez. She studied composition with Frank Nuyts, Jan Rispens, Lucien Goethals and Roland Coryn. In 1999 she earned the “Meester in de muziek” diploma from the Antwerp conservatory, specialising in composition (under Luc Van Hove). Petra Vermote teaches guitar at the conservatory in Ghent as an assistant to Yves Storms. She also teaches courses in accompaniment and music education in the guitar department. Vermote gives guitar lessons at the music academy in Izegem and provides the musical programming for De Wekker, an organisation in Roeselare. As a composer, she has written works on commission for such groups as the Beethoven Academie, the Flanders Festival (Kortrijk), the Ictus Ensemble and Champ d'Action. In October 2001, she received the Youth and Music Prize for composition, a tri-annual award given to a composer under the age of 35.

Selective bibliography
– M. BEIRENS, Een compositie van leraar en leerlinge: Een gesprek met Luc Van Hove en Petra Vermote, in Festival van Vlaanderen: Festivalbrochure Brussel, September, 1999, p. 186-192
– D. BLOCKEEL, De noten van Petra Vermote, in Kunst en Cultuur: maandblad van het Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, November 1999, p. 16
– R. BROUX, De Nieuwe Generatie, in Forum, 6, March 1999, p. 13-15
– P. DEGRYSE, Tamtam op het water, in Muziek en Woord, 26, September 2000, p. 6
– T. DENECKERE, De jonge componiste Petra Vermote, in Kaderblad Jeugd en Muziek, sept. 1998, p. 30-34
– L. VAN DER EYCKEN en L. VEREERTBRUGGHEN, Dromen van een zorgeloos poezenleven, in Muziek en Woord, 24, September 1998, p. 46-47

©2002 Eva Demeyer, for Flanders Music Centre and MATRIX

2007 Award "Laureate of the Academy", by the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for the Sciences and the Art, for the whole of her work.

2003 Award for Contemporary Music Flanders-Quebec, for TSJIZJ.

2003 The "De Koninck Brewery Award" for the whole of her work.

2001 Youth and Music Award for Composition for the whole of her work.

1999 Master Degree for composition at the Antwerp Conservatory, studying with Luc Van Hove.

Since 1995 Professor of guitar and didactics at the University College of Ghent, Faculty of Music and Drama.

 

Key works:

FURÚ (2007) for flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion.

LOSS (2007) semi-staged work for 2 guitars, bass lute, kamanche, oud, qanun.

SHIR HASHIRIM (2006) for soprano and harp.

THE ECHO OF THE MOON (2005) musical theatre and ensemble work, for soprano, male speaking voice, flute/piccolo/alto flute, clarinet/bass clarinet/Es clarinet, guitar, percussion, cello.

RUACH (2004) for string orchestra.

VERY LIGHT (2003) for double wood quintet.

AMANECÍA (2003) for flute/piccolo/alto flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, horn, guitar, piano, percussion, violin, alto, cello, double bass.

GRISGRIS (2002) for symphonic orchestra.

DIFERENCÍAS (2001) 7 songs for soprano, flute/ piccolo/alto flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, guitar, piano, percussion, violin, alto, cello.

TSJIZJ (2000) 5 songs for soprano, flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion.

 

Selectieve discografie als componist

	Kalès Guitar Quartet (2010) 21st century / contemporary Kalès Guitar Quartet, Petra Vermote, Richard Bernd Deutsch, Kris De Baerdemacker, Benjamin Van Esser		Lexicon van de muziek in West-Vlaanderen 4 (2006) 20th century Eline Groslot, Bram Nolf, Ebony kwartet, Viviane Spanoghe, HERMESensemble, Less is more, Geert Callaert, Quintessens (...)
	En hij schiep... 7 culturen (2005) 20th century De Tweede Adem, Maarten Van Ingelgem, Lucien Posman, Peter Swinnen, Filip Rathé, Petra Vermote, Natalie Goossens, Nicolas De Cock (...)		Emanon Mystery (2003) 20th century Emanon ensemble, Petra Vermote, Peter Thys, Alain Craens, Stefan Wellens
	Carnaval des Animaux (2003) 21st century / contemporary, 20th century Peter Verhoyen, Arco Baleno, Frits Celis, Yves Bondue, Petra Vermote, Jan Huylebroeck, Marc Matthys, Boudewijn Buckinx (...)		Vlaamse Hedendaagse Muziek 20th century, 21st century / contemporary Claude Coppens, ChampdAction, Rolande Van der Paal, Vlaams Radio Orkest, HERMESensemble, Apsara, Vlaams Radiokoor (VRK), Jan Michiels (...)

Related Items

Documents:	Contemporary Music in Flanders IV (book)