Svenja Van Driessche

Svenja has been a rising star for several years. She has played recitals and concerts with reputed orchestras both in Belgium and abroad, including the Tallinn Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lviv Philharmonic, the Brussels Philharmonic and the Kamerfilharmonie. Conductors she has already worked with include Michel Tabachnic, Marc Soustrot, Jan Dobrzelewski, Herman Engels and Edwin Outwater. Having successfully completed masterclasses with Herman Krebbers, Zakhar Bron, Ana Chumachenco, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Sergey Ostrovsky and others, she has been invited to international festivals such as Interlaken Classics (Switzerland), Eilat Festival (Israel), Kronberg Academy (Germany), Musik Fest Perugia (Italy), Keshet Eilon (Israel), Lenk Sommerakademie (Switzerland) and AIMS Solsona (Spain). Both in 2007 and in 2010, Svenja became the first laureate of the Rotary Breughel Competition for strings and was awarded the Grand Prix Rotary Breughel. In 2009, she won the second prize at the international violin competition Bravo. Shortly afterwards, she was invited by the Brussels Philharmonic to contribute to the radio and television broadcasting of the Christmas Concert at the Royal Palace under the baton of Michel Tabachnik. With the Brussels

Philharmonic, Svenja recorded ‘Méditation de Thaïs’ of Jules Massenet for a cd entitled ‘Feestelijk Klassiek’. After successful auditions for the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Svenja was the only Belgian and the youngest participant at the Summer Tour 2011 led by Sir Colin Davis, having been chosen to perform in renowned concert halls, including the Semperoper Dresden, the Salzburger Festspiele and the London Royal Albert Hall. She was also invited to join the 2013 and 2014 tours led by Philippe Jordan and Herbert Blomstedt. In September 2011, Svenja passed the admission test for Haute Ecole de Musique of Lausanne where, in June 2014, having benefited from training by Pavel Vernikov, she earned her bachelor degree. In addition, she completed the International Competition Training module under the supervision of Professor Vernikov at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole and at the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Bergamo. In 2016, having taken classes with Professor Tatiana Samouil, she earned her master degree from Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen. For her final exams for the violin, she received a summa cum laude assessment with congratulations from the jury.

Recently, Svenja performed as a soloist at various concerts, together with the Brussels Philharmonic conducted by Edwin Outwater for Klara Festival, both in Belgium and abroad. Since academic year 2016-2017, Svenja has continued her studies at Escuela Superior de Enseñanza Musical Katarina Gurska in Madrid, under the supervision of Professor Zorik Tatevosyan. For the 2018-2019 season, many concerts have been scheduled at prestigious festivals and renowned concert halls. Svenja will for instance perform as a soloist with Prima La Musica led by Dirk Vermeulen, Casco Phil led by Benjamin Haemhouts, the Flanders Chamber Philharmonic under the baton of Herman Engels and Brussels Philharmonic led by Dirk Brossé. She will pair up with pianist Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort to give concerts as a duo and realise a first cd recording (with Evil Penguin Records). Svenja is holder of the title of ‘Musician in Residence’ conferred by KULeuven.