Fanfare!

Concert

Soloists: Jeroen Berwaerts, trumpet - Senne La Mela, trumpet
Conductor: Ivan Meylemans

Fanfare orchestra Kempenbloei from Achel is a dynamic orchestra of about 75 musicians. In its more than 160-year history, the brass band has always been a musical pioneer. Over the past 25 years in particular, Kempenbloei has developed into one of the world's leading brass bands, both through its high-quality concerts and its successes at competitions.
Participations in the 4-yearly World Music Contest are the highlights of the past era and resulted in a unique series of results: first place in the first division in 2001, second place in the concert division in 2005 and 4 consecutive world titles in the concert division: 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2022.
The orchestra recorded 7 studio CDs, both in-house and commissioned by various hafabra music publishers. The brass band also collaborated on recordings of several international soloists. Furthermore, the orchestra made several live recordings in cooperation with Radio Klara.
The brass band gave prestigious concerts in well-known concert halls such as ‘De Vooruit’ in Ghent, ‘Het Concertgebouw’ in Bruges, the ‘Bozar’ in Brussels, ‘Het Auditorium’ of the conservatory in Luxembourg, ‘Schouwburg Concertzaal’ in Tilburg and the ‘Teatro de la Zarzuela’ in Madrid. The latter concert was organised to mark the handover of the European Union presidency from Spain to Belgium.
Moreover, in recent years Kempenbloei has commissioned dozens of compositions and arrangements from various international composers.

Belgian trumpeter Jeroen Berwaerts is a musical powerhouse whose all-encompassing love for music knows no genre
boundaries. Highly esteemed worldwide for his exceptional technical skills and sensitive musicality, he explores repertoire
spanning all eras, from Baroque to contemporary music and jazz.

As a soloist, Jeroen Berwaerts has performed with leading orchestras including the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Vienna
Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Het Residentie Orkest, Belgian National
Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Malmö Symphony
Orchestra, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg. He has collaborated with conductors such as Alan Gilbert,
Daniel Harding, Markus Stenz, Jun Märkl, and Matthias Pintscher. He is a regular guest at internationally renowned festivals
including the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, BBC Proms, Takefu International Music Festival in Japan, Domaine Forget
International Festival in Canada, Ars Musica in Belgium, Heidelberg Spring, and Rheingau Musik Festival.
In the 2023/24 season, Jeroen Berwaerts begins his tour in Australia with concerts in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. In
October, he will premiere a new work by Vito Žuraj with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, followed by German and
Japanese premieres with Ensemble Resonanz at the Elbphilharmonie and the Aichi Chamber Orchestra, respectively.
Throughout the season, he will also perform with Camerata Bern and Alexander Melnikov, as well as at venues such as the
Alte Oper Frankfurt, Liszt Academy Budapest, and Seoul Recital Hall.

Jeroen Berwaerts is known for reinvigorating the standard trumpet repertoire by placing it in inventive and unusual
contexts. For instance, he combines Handel’s Feuerwerksmusik and dances from Rameau’s opera Dardanus with chansons
by Jacques Brel, often taking on the vocal parts himself. Alongside his vibrant career as a trumpeter, he also completed
jazz vocal studies at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent.

His extraordinary commitment to contemporary music is evident in numerous world premieres, particularly Toshio
Hosokawa’s second trumpet concerto Im Nebel and Francesco Filidei’s Carnevale. Following Håkan Hardenberger, he
became the second trumpeter worldwide to incorporate HK Gruber’s Busking into his repertoire. In 2019, he premiered
Tobias Broström's double concerto for two trumpets, Nigredo: The Dark Night of the Soul, alongside Håkan Hardenberger.
His latest discography addition is the album Signals from Heaven, recorded in 2017 with Salaputia Brass, where he
appears as a trumpeter, jazz vocalist, and ensemble leader.

Jeroen Berwaerts studied with the renowned trumpet virtuoso Reinhold Friedrich in Karlsruhe. Since 2008, he has served as
Professor of Trumpet at the Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media. He is also Professor in Residence at the Royal
Academy of Music in London and an official Yamaha Artist.