Biography

Wilfried WESTERLINCK (°1945) studied at the Belgian music conservatories of Brussels and Antwerp. Between 1968 and 2001 he was responsible for the chamber music department at the Belgian Radio. He taught music analysis at the Antwerp Conservatory from 1970 until 1983. In 2004 he taught composition at the Music Academy of Gdansk (Poland) and during the same year he was invited by the "Arena Festival" in Riga (Latvia), where he lectured about Contemporary Flemish Music. In September 2011 the Latvian radio broadcasted a program entirely dedicated to his music. In March 2006 Wilfried Westerlinck was invited as a guest professor by Baylor University in Texas (USA), where his music was performed. Between 2004 and 2008 he was a regular guest at the "Fundación Cultural Knecht-Drenth" in Spain.
As a composer, Wilfried Westerlinck was awarded in 1972 the Tenuto Prize for "Metamorphosis" for large orchestra, in 1977 the Antwerp Province Award for "Landscapes I" for woodwind quintet, in 1985 the Eugène Baie Prize as a general recognition of the artistic value of his compositions. Wilfried Westerlinck's compositions often emanate personal experiences and visual impressions, generally starting with very limited basic materials, then gradually evolving. The composer doesn't aspire to evoke new sound worlds, but tries to expose the soul and natural resonance of the instruments. The poetic power of Westerlinck's work comes from processing and repetition - harmonic as linear - from a small idea. Chords directly follow the inflections of the melody, giving color and atmosphere to the melodic nuances, often characterized by a tender melancholy and pure poetry. This way the composer can be situated between avant-garde and postmodernism.