The Vlaams Radio Koor (Flemish Radio Choir) was founded in 1937 by the Belgian public broadcaster of the day. Today it has become a choir of exceptionally high quality that counts both domestically and internationally among the top ensembles. The 24 professional singers rehearse under the baton of chief conductor Hervé Niquet in Studio 1 of the well-known Flagey building in Brussels, and perform throughout Flanders and Europe.

Hervé Niquet, chief conductor of the Flemish Radio Choir as of 2011, is a passionate musician like most of the composers of Baroque music whose works he enjoys. He studied not only harpsichord, piano and organ, but also the lyric arts and conducting. He considers the musical profession from a researcher’s perspective, and thus gives priority to primary sources in order to move beyond established conventions and customs. The experience he garnered from working with several major Baroque ensembles laid the basis for his special connection with the French ‘Grand Motet’ of the 17th and 18th centuries.
His great desire to bring new life to this unknown repertoire resulted in 1987 in the establishment of Le Concert Spirituel. Over twenty years, this ensemble has become the reference point for Baroque music.
In the same spirit, and starting from the principle that over the centuries there has been only one ‘French music’, Hervé Niquet conducts various eminent orchestras, including the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Sinfonia Varsovia, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Rias Kammerchor, the Kammerorchester Basel, and Brussels Philharmonic.
In 2009, he participated in the foundation of the Centre de musique romantique française, also known as Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice. This led, among other things, to a prestigious project in collaboration with the Brussels Philharmonic and with the Flemish Radio Choir: a CD collection with music from the Prix de Rome and rarely performed works from the French Romantic repertoire. The first CD of the series is devoted to Debussy (2009), the second volume consists of neglected works by Saint-Saëns (2010), the third disc features the work of Charpentier (2011) and the fourth volume (2012) is dedicated to d’Ollone. In the meantime, new series have been launched featuring portraits of composers and French opera (Joncières’ Dmitri and David’s Herculanum).
Hervé Niquet has been made Chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite and an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Pieter Wispelwey is equally at ease on the modern or period cello. His acute stylistic awareness, combined with a truly original interpretation and a phenomenal technical mastery, has won the hearts of critics and public alike in repertoire ranging from JS Bach to Schnittke, Elliott Carter and works composed for him.
Pieter Wispelwey enjoys chamber music collaborations and regular duo partners include pianists Cédric Tiberghien and Alasdair Beatson and he appears as a guest artist with a number of string quartets including the Australian String Quartet.
Wispelwey’s career spans five continents and he has appeared as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Boston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, London Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, Danish National Radio Symphony and Camerata Salzburg. Conductor collaborations include Ivan Fischer, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Herbert Blomstedt, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jeffrey Tate, Kent Nagano, Sir Neville Marriner, Philippe Herreweghe, Ton Koopman and Sir Roger Norrington.
With regular recital appearances in London (Wigmore Hall), Paris (Châtelet, Louvre), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw, Muziekgebouw), Brussels (Bozar), Berlin (Konzerthaus), Milan (Societta del Quartetto), Buenos Aires (Teatro Colon), Sydney (The Utzon Room), Los Angeles (Walt Disney Hall) and New York (Lincoln Center), Wispelwey has established a reputation as one of the most charismatic recitalists on the circuit.
In 2012 Wispelwey celebrated his 50th birthday by embarking on a project showcasing the Bach Cello Suites. He recorded the complete Suites for the third time. A major strand of his recital performances is his performances of the complete suites during the course of one evening, an accomplishment that has attracted major critical acclaim throughout Europe and the US. Pieter Wispelwey plays on a 1760 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini cello and a 1710 Rombouts baroque cello.

Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson works prolifically as soloist and chamber musician. He is renowned as a sincere musician and intrepid programmer. Alongside a particular affinity with the classical repertoire and the music of Schumann and Fauré, he often explores the more exotic: Catoire, Pierné, Thuille; Debussy’s Jeux (in the composer’s arrangement for solo piano); Ligeti Horn Trio, Harrison Birtwistle’s Harrison’s Clocks; and Thomas Adès Piano Quintet. His concerto repertoire includes works of Bach, Bartok, Fauré, Hans Abrahamsen, Hindemith, Mozart, Sally Beamish, Stravinsky, and Messiaen.

Alasdair has enjoyed working closely with composers George Benjamin, Harrison Birtwistle, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, and Heinz Holliger. He teaches solo piano at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and regularly mentors for the London-based Chamber Studio. From 2012 to 2018 Alasdair was founder and artistic director of Musique à Marsac, and since 2019 is co-artistic director of the Swiss chamber music festival at Ernen.

Described by The Guardian as ‘a violinist whose rare gift is to become rather than perform the music he plays’, the Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto is internatio- nally renowned for his fresh approach to the repertoire. An advocate of new music, Kuusisto premiered Sebastian Fagerlund’s Violin Concerto and regularly collab- orates with composers such as Nico Muhly and Thomas Adès.
In addition to his performances as a concerto soloist, Kuusisto regularly directs from the violin and engages with performers across the artistic spectrum, with unique collaborations including the juggler Jay Gilligan and the folk musician Sam Amidon. Finnish traditional music serves as a source of inspiration, greatly influen- cing his approach to the violin.
Kuusisto is artistic director of award-winning ‘Our Festival’, based in Järven- pää, Sibelius’s home town. He is a recipient of the Nordic Council Music Prize, and his residencies have included the Aldeburgh Festival and the Robeco Zomer- concerten of Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. He plays a Giovanni Battista Gua- dagnini violin of 1754 kindly loaned by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.