English
A conductor and harpsichordist, Korneel Bernolet (°1989) is one of the most versatile talents of the international music scene today, known and respected for his fresh, no-nonsense and immediate view and vision on music performance and style.
As a conductor, debuting at age 13 leading his own compositions, he works in a repertoire span from Monteverdi till Gershwin, with a preference for opera and oratorio. Between 2015 and 2018 he acted as assistant-conductor for Jos van Immerseel at Anima Eterna Brugge, ending with a highly praised livestreamed guest-conductorship in Beethoven's 9th Symphony and Choir Fantasy in Bruges and Frankfurt. Since 2014 he works closely together with Christophe Rousset as an assistant-conductor and harpsichordist in his orchestra Les Talens Lyriques. Recently he started collaborating with Collegium Vocale Ghent and the Flemish Radio Choir as a regular chorus master, and with Philippe Herreweghe as pianoforte-continuo and assistant-conductor with either the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Collegium Vocale Ghent. In 2021 he acts as assistant-conductor to Christoph Prégardien with Antwerp Symphony Orchestra; earlier he assisted at B'Rock, cantoLX and Vokalconsort Berlin. As a guest conductor he'll soon make his first appearances with Il Gardellino (Marcel Ponseele & Jan Dewinne) soon at the Tage Alter Musik in Herne. In the past he conducted a.o. the Bach Akademie Australia (as festival star of the 2019 Bach edition of the Canberra International Music Festival, conductig seven concerts in one festival, amongst which the first ever Bach Johannes-Passion in Australia's capital), Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Anima Eterna Brugge, Collegium Vocale Gent, Transparant Music Theater, International Opera Academy Gent, Symphony Orchestra of the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, and countless semi-professional ensembles. In all these positions, he conducts regularly at prestigeous houses such as Vienna State Oper, Theater an der Wien, La Monnaie Brussels, Opéra National du Rhin Nancy, Rudolphinum Prague, Flemish Opera, Valenciana Temple Guanajuato Mexico, the Philharmonies of Paris, Cologne, Essen, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, and will soon make his debut as assistant-conductor at Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
With his own project, the Apotheosis Orchestra on period instruments, he plays and conducts music from Baroque till the high Romantic era, including Purcell, Bach, Handel, Bernier, Rameau, Telemann, Mozart, Benda, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Vaughan-Williams... The group produced several chamber music CDs since 2011, and most recently their orchestral opera début-CD (Pygmalion by Rameau and Benda, released 2019 on Ramée) was internationally praised as a new reference: "Korneel Bernolet is our new Rameau champion" (Classique News). This project was continued in an exciting production at MAfestival Bruges 2019, staged by Femke Gyselinck. Other partners-in-crime for opera, ballet and music theatre include Guy Joosten (Telemann Orpheus), Sigrid T'Hooft (Bernier Trois visages d'Hécate), Luigi de Angelis (Rameau Les indes galantes), Gemma Beltran (Mozart La finta giardiniera), Nathalie Van Parys (Rameau Les indes galantes)...
Korneel Bernolet is active world-wide as a recital soloist (throughout Europe, South-Korea and Australia, with solo appearences at Bach Academy Bruges, BOZAR Brussels, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Wunderkammer Trieste, Cambridge University, Sydney University, Incheon National University and the Canberra International Music Festival...) and as an ensemble player, amongst the above mentioned also as principal continuo player of Il Gardellino (Marcel Ponseele), Flemish Radio Choir (Bart Van Reyn), Transports Publics (Thomas Baeté), BachPlus (Bart Naessens); and in the past with B'Rock (Frank Agsteribbe), Mannheimer Hofkapelle, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Scherzi Musicali (Nicolas Achten), Utopia, several smaller ensembles and as a duo partner of Christophe Rousset and Ewald Demeyere. If not for the COVID-19 pandemic, this list would also have included 2020-2021 productions with Staatskapelle Dresden and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, which will hopefully be postponed.
He studied historical keyboards with Paul Clement, Ewald Demeyere, Piet Kuijken, Gustav Leonhardt and Christophe Rousset; conducting through conservatoire studies with Geert Hendrix and Luc Anthonis, masterclasses with Georg Grün, Daan Admiraal and many assistantships; and obtained with stellar marks the Master degrees in both harpsichord and conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, where he started teaching already during his final study year. Korneel made his début at the age of 19 as a continuo player with Sigiswald Kuijken's La Petite Bande, was named 'Young Musician of the Year' in 2014 by the Belgian Music Press Association, and two years later was appointed the new Professor of Harpsichord at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, where he teaches on the famous Dulcken 1747 harpsichord at Museum Vleeshuis where he is 'harpsichordist in residence'. At this conservatoire he also chairs the Historically Informed Performance Practice workgroup and conducts projects with the many formations, in which he also coaches conducting students. He also teaches and conducts at the International Opera Academy Ghent and is doing PhD research at Antwerp University. Lectures, masterclasses and concerts brought him to the conservatories and universities of Manchester, Vilnius, Cambridge, Antwerp and Sydney. His discography, including solo works by Balbastre, Rameau and Weckbacher, now counts some thirty recordings. Several solo recordings were added to the prestigeous online 'All of Bach' series by The Netherlands Bach Society.
Besides his concert career, he is a passionate and highly in-demand recording engineer and producer.
As a conductor, debuting at age 13 leading his own compositions, he works in a repertoire span from Monteverdi till Gershwin, with a preference for opera and oratorio. Between 2015 and 2018 he acted as assistant-conductor for Jos van Immerseel at Anima Eterna Brugge, ending with a highly praised livestreamed guest-conductorship in Beethoven's 9th Symphony and Choir Fantasy in Bruges and Frankfurt. Since 2014 he works closely together with Christophe Rousset as an assistant-conductor and harpsichordist in his orchestra Les Talens Lyriques. Recently he started collaborating with Collegium Vocale Ghent and the Flemish Radio Choir as a regular chorus master, and with Philippe Herreweghe as pianoforte-continuo and assistant-conductor with either the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Collegium Vocale Ghent. In 2021 he acts as assistant-conductor to Christoph Prégardien with Antwerp Symphony Orchestra; earlier he assisted at B'Rock, cantoLX and Vokalconsort Berlin. As a guest conductor he'll soon make his first appearances with Il Gardellino (Marcel Ponseele & Jan Dewinne) soon at the Tage Alter Musik in Herne. In the past he conducted a.o. the Bach Akademie Australia (as festival star of the 2019 Bach edition of the Canberra International Music Festival, conductig seven concerts in one festival, amongst which the first ever Bach Johannes-Passion in Australia's capital), Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Anima Eterna Brugge, Collegium Vocale Gent, Transparant Music Theater, International Opera Academy Gent, Symphony Orchestra of the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, and countless semi-professional ensembles. In all these positions, he conducts regularly at prestigeous houses such as Vienna State Oper, Theater an der Wien, La Monnaie Brussels, Opéra National du Rhin Nancy, Rudolphinum Prague, Flemish Opera, Valenciana Temple Guanajuato Mexico, the Philharmonies of Paris, Cologne, Essen, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, and will soon make his debut as assistant-conductor at Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
With his own project, the Apotheosis Orchestra on period instruments, he plays and conducts music from Baroque till the high Romantic era, including Purcell, Bach, Handel, Bernier, Rameau, Telemann, Mozart, Benda, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Vaughan-Williams... The group produced several chamber music CDs since 2011, and most recently their orchestral opera début-CD (Pygmalion by Rameau and Benda, released 2019 on Ramée) was internationally praised as a new reference: "Korneel Bernolet is our new Rameau champion" (Classique News). This project was continued in an exciting production at MAfestival Bruges 2019, staged by Femke Gyselinck. Other partners-in-crime for opera, ballet and music theatre include Guy Joosten (Telemann Orpheus), Sigrid T'Hooft (Bernier Trois visages d'Hécate), Luigi de Angelis (Rameau Les indes galantes), Gemma Beltran (Mozart La finta giardiniera), Nathalie Van Parys (Rameau Les indes galantes)...
Korneel Bernolet is active world-wide as a recital soloist (throughout Europe, South-Korea and Australia, with solo appearences at Bach Academy Bruges, BOZAR Brussels, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Wunderkammer Trieste, Cambridge University, Sydney University, Incheon National University and the Canberra International Music Festival...) and as an ensemble player, amongst the above mentioned also as principal continuo player of Il Gardellino (Marcel Ponseele), Flemish Radio Choir (Bart Van Reyn), Transports Publics (Thomas Baeté), BachPlus (Bart Naessens); and in the past with B'Rock (Frank Agsteribbe), Mannheimer Hofkapelle, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Scherzi Musicali (Nicolas Achten), Utopia, several smaller ensembles and as a duo partner of Christophe Rousset and Ewald Demeyere. If not for the COVID-19 pandemic, this list would also have included 2020-2021 productions with Staatskapelle Dresden and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, which will hopefully be postponed.
He studied historical keyboards with Paul Clement, Ewald Demeyere, Piet Kuijken, Gustav Leonhardt and Christophe Rousset; conducting through conservatoire studies with Geert Hendrix and Luc Anthonis, masterclasses with Georg Grün, Daan Admiraal and many assistantships; and obtained with stellar marks the Master degrees in both harpsichord and conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, where he started teaching already during his final study year. Korneel made his début at the age of 19 as a continuo player with Sigiswald Kuijken's La Petite Bande, was named 'Young Musician of the Year' in 2014 by the Belgian Music Press Association, and two years later was appointed the new Professor of Harpsichord at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, where he teaches on the famous Dulcken 1747 harpsichord at Museum Vleeshuis where he is 'harpsichordist in residence'. At this conservatoire he also chairs the Historically Informed Performance Practice workgroup and conducts projects with the many formations, in which he also coaches conducting students. He also teaches and conducts at the International Opera Academy Ghent and is doing PhD research at Antwerp University. Lectures, masterclasses and concerts brought him to the conservatories and universities of Manchester, Vilnius, Cambridge, Antwerp and Sydney. His discography, including solo works by Balbastre, Rameau and Weckbacher, now counts some thirty recordings. Several solo recordings were added to the prestigeous online 'All of Bach' series by The Netherlands Bach Society.
Besides his concert career, he is a passionate and highly in-demand recording engineer and producer.