The past few days have been a good reminder of how many different things can fit into one week.

On Tuesday, October 6, I played my Antrittskonzert at HfMT Köln. This was a huge personal milestone for me: three solo works, each demanding in its own way, performed for a full hall of wonderful colleagues, friends, family, and students. Everything went very well, and I was especially happy with the many kind reactions afterward. A great evening, and a very warm welcome to my new home at the Hochschule.

A big thank-you to Wannes Gonnissen, Piotr Peszat, the HfMT technical crew, and my colleagues at Nadar Ensemble for helping make it happen.

Two days later, I was back on the road with Nadar for Don’t Leave the Room at Theater im Pumpenhaus in Münster, as part of KLANGZEIT Festival. The program brings together music, film, electronics, and live performance around questions of isolation, censorship, and our connection to the outside world. It was wonderful to perform this carefully constructed program for a Münster audience. Bravo to everyone involved!

What’s next?

October brings another special occasion: I’ll be back in Antwerp for the launch of ARIAdne, the new network for doctoral graduates in the arts, alongside ARTICULATE, the research festival at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp. Having completed my PhD there in 2022, I’m looking forward to reconnecting with fellow researchers and sharing what we’ve been working on since graduating. This year’s ARTICULATE theme is Presence / Absence—a fitting starting point for conversations about artistic practice and research.

November will be just as busy. First, Nadar Ensemble celebrates its 20th anniversary with two concerts at DE SINGEL in Antwerp on November 13 and 14. The program, Hide To Show, brings together three works: Stefan Prins’s Mesh, Louis d’Heudières’s Laughter Studies 7, and Michael Beil’s Hide To Show. It’s a fitting way to mark twenty years of an ensemble that has been such an important part of my musical life. I hope to see some familiar faces there!

On November 8, I’ll play George Lewis’s Oraculum again at the Rotary Club Aachen’s annual ROUNDTABLE benefit concert, at HfMT’s Aachen campus. The evening also features solo and chamber music projects I’ve coached over the past semesters. I’m really looking forward to hearing what the students bring to the stage.

And on November 9, I’ll be playing with Spectra Ensemble at the Belgian Music Days in Ghent. The program, Cantus Firmus Belgica, brings together six composers from across Belgium, including Luc Brewaeys’s Cardhu, alongside two world premieres. It’s always a pleasure to return to this music and work with the Spectra musicians again.

A milestone celebrated, a new season underway, and plenty of music still to come. I hope to see you at one of these concerts!

On 20 and 21 June I’ll be back in Athens with my fellow Nadar Ensemble players for two more performances of Michael Beil’s Hide to Show.

This piece has really grown within the ensemble over the course of the season. The more we play it, the more natural it feels and the more there is to discover in it. It’s been exciting to watch it develop from one performance to the next, and we’re all very happy to be bringing it to Athens.

On 1 June I had the pleasure of joining Musikfabrik for a concert at the Morgenland Festival in Osnabrück.

I always have a great time with this ensemble. The musicians are unbelievably good, but they’re also just such nice people. There’s a real sense of curiosity and generosity in the group that makes rehearsals and concerts a pleasure. Spending a few days with them in Osnabrück was a real highlight.

In Aachen, we’re entering the final rehearsal phase for Udo Zimmermann’s chamber opera Die Weiße Rose, which will be performed on 15 and 17 July at the Klangbrücke.

The project is a collaboration between soprano Valerie Haunz and the student new music ensemble Aix•tent. For Valerie, it serves as her Master’s Abschlusskonzert. For the ensemble, it’s a chance to go much deeper into music theater than we normally do and to explore the space where music, text, staging, and dramatic expression all meet.

Valerie has been an amazing project leader throughout the entire process. Not only has she come to the project exceptionally well prepared as a singer, but she has also kept an eye on the countless practical details that go into making a production like this happen. It’s rare to find someone who can balance both sides of the job so well. Bravo, Valerie!

29 November – Concert in Sint-Niklaas

This weekend, I had the pleasure of performing with the Nadar Ensemble in our home town of Sint-Niklaas. And yes, you read that correctly: me playing Bach?
Well… sort of.

For me, a highlight of the evening was performing Simon Steen-Andersen’s fascinating re-staging of Bach’s Ich habe genug. It’s a brilliant, intricate, and surprising piece — always a challenge.

We also premiered Anthony Romaniuk’s new work, Enough (Already), composed especially for us and for this program, fittingly titled “I’ll be Bach.”

The concert featured wonderful solo performances by my colleagues Pieter Matthynssens, Nico Couck, and Anthony Romaniuk. Bravo!

Trombone Octet – Reading Farzan Salsabili’s New Piece

A few days earlier, on 26 November, the trombone class at the HfMT Köln gathered to read through a brand new piece by Farzan Salsabili, a student of Brigitta Munte­ndorf and Oxana Omelchuk.

Written specifically for this ensemble as part of the Oktett-Reihe project, the piece dives deep into the possibilities of the trombone — full of inventive techniques, written for the instrument in a way that feels natural, idiomatic, and exciting. It was a joy to explore this new work for the first time.

Next Concert – 17 December in Kraków (PL)

The next stop is Kraków, on 17 December at 19:00 in the Cricoteka. I’m both excited and a little daunted: performing two demanding solo works in one evening is always a real challenge.

The program features:

• Thierry De Mey – Light Music
• Piotr Peszat – And I am standing on stage again (world premiere)

Peszat’s new piece, inspired by the work of the renowned Polish artist Tadeusz Kantor and his Theatre of Death, reimagines the trombone concerto format. It dives into the mechanisms of human memory, weaving references to Kantor’s world into a vivid musical language.

It’s a true honour to be able to premiere this work in the Cricoteka, the museum dedicated to Kantor’s life and art.

Portrait of George Lewis – 27.10, Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln

On a concert put on by ColLAB Cologne, I was asked to play George Lewis’s Oraculum for solo trombone. It’s a powerful piece and I learned a lot about my own instrument through it. Performing as a professor for many of my new colleagues (and a full house!) added another layer to the experience. Hearing the piece live in that space, made every gesture more real – it’s a great piece and it needs an audience.

The concert was part of the festival Composing While Black and Queer, organized by my colleagues Anna Schürmer and Susanne Blumenthal. I was happy to have been a part of a festival that centers these voices.

Concert with MAM – 9.11, Dortmund
A few weeks later, I was in Dortmund with MAM, working again with Michael Maierhof. We played a new piece that takes his sound ideas further into the realm of light. It was great to play with new people in the ensemble and to perform in the unusual space of Tresor.West. It’s exciting when a piece feels like it’s evolving in real time, and this one definitely did.

Coming Up

Aix•tent Concert – 20.11, Aachen
My student ensemble in Aachen have been preparing a noisy, post-spectral program and been working hard on new techniques. We also had a masterclass with Wolfgang Bender, former violinist with the Kairos Quartet. The program includes music by Catherine Lamb, Julia Wolfe, and James Tenney. The students’ curiosity and energy is very rewarding.

Brigitte Kempen Wettbewerb – 21 & 22.11
I’ll be on the jury for the Brigitte Kempen Wettbewerb, this time for violins. Two days of competition. It’s interesting to participate as an outside perspective — not a string player myself — and I’m looking forward to hearing the different interpretations from the players and being on the other side, just listening and observing.