“I was impressed by his technical ability,
his powers of communication to the orchestra,
his natural authority and the clarity of his musical ideas.”
Bernard Haitink
Ivan Meylemans (born 1971, Belgium) started his orchestral conducting studies at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where his teachers were Ed Spanjaard and Jac van Steen. Since he graduated in 2000 with summa cum laude, Ivan has taken part in several national and international conducting competitions and has proven very successful. In September 2002, he won the Second International
Vakhtang Jordania conducting competition in Kharkov (Ukraine) and only two weeks later, he became finalist and third laureate of the renowned Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London, where he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in compositions that include “The Miraculous
Mandarin” of Béla Bartok. This performance was very well received by the London music critics who unanimously proclaimed him their choice as winner of the competition. In June 2005 Meylemans was awarded the ‘Salon Prize’, an award aimed at encouraging young musicians of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. This prize resulted in a first full-CD recording with the Royal
Concertgebouw Brass (RCO Brass) and is available from RCO Live, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s own record label (RCO 07002).
2007 marked a major turning point in Ivan Meylemans’ career; he decided to end his 13-year career as a trombone soloist with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to fully dedicate his time to his advancing career as a conductor. He becomes assistant of Mariss Jansons, chief-conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and rejoins this orchestra on all their major European, American and Asiatic tours. Meylemans also assisted other renowned conductors like Herbert Blomstedt and Markus Stenz.
In 2007, Ivan Meylemans has been appointed chief-conductor of Het Kamer Orkest Bruges, one of the few remaining chamber ensembles that has established an acknowledged and renowned place amongst the specialised chamber orchestras of Belgium.
Today, Ivan Meylemans has been much in demand as a guest conductor for famous national and international chamber and symphony orchestras. The 2008 season was characterized by important international debuts with a.o. the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Luxembourg and Zagreb and the Residentie Orchestra; contacts that were continued in the 2009-2010 season, with as highlights a concert with the NWD Philharmonie in the Verdi Hall in Milano and concerts with the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra and Netherlands Radio Filharmonic Orchestra (RPO). Among his future engagements are performances with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic of Flandres and the Danish Radio Symphony orchestra.
March 2010
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