Every year, the SOV Composers' Academy offers the chance to two to three composers studying at Belgian conservatories to complete a course of several months with the orchestra. During workshops, working sessions and orchestra rehearsals, their compositions are moulded and carefully considered. The final result will be presented to the public during a concert series by Flanders Symphony Orchestra.
Project in collaboration with Muziekcentrum De Bijloke and DE SINGEL. Supported by Anacura.
SOV Composers' Academy 2026-27 selected three composers at different stages of their education or career. The chosen composers will be challenged to write new works that dialogue with the repertoire of our concert programmes. They will again work together intensively with our orchestra and directly experience how notes come to life in the concert hall. This collaboration provides room for adjustments and valuable feedback from our musicians, creating a stimulating trial-and-error experience.
Ramses Vandewalle (b. 2001) will compose a one-minute symphony for SOV Young. For the concert series in January 2027, Valentin Anciaux (b. 1993) will compose a work that fits perfectly within the programme. Finally, in May, Yngwie Janseghers (b. 2004) will draw inspiration from the repertoire of the season’s final concert series.
Ramses Vandewalle (b. 2001) is currently in his third year of the Bachelor’s degree in Composition under Pieter Schuermans at LUCA School of Arts. He began taking percussion lessons at the age of eight at the music school in Menen and is still active as a performing musician in various wind and symphony orchestras.
Ramses will compose a one-minute symphony for the SOV Young autumn project.
Yngwie Janseghers (b. 2004) is a Master’s student in composition at KASK & Conservatorium Gent, studying under Daan Janssens. He previously studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp.
During the 2023–24 season, he was Composer-in-Residence with the Mahler Student Festival Orchestra. Janseghers’ music, ranging from works for solo instruments to orchestral pieces, with or without electronics, focuses on the transformation of musical or non-musical objects.
His composition will premiere in May 2027 during ‘Mendelssohn’s Italian’.
Valentin Anciaux (b. 1993) is a composer with a passion for extreme music (such as punk, hardcore and metal) and avant-garde music from the late twentieth century. He began his studies at the IMEP in Namur in 2012, where he obtained a Master’s degree in classical guitar in 2018. He then studied composition at the Conservatoire Royal de Mons – ARTS2 under Claude Ledoux, graduating in 2024. Through his music, Anciaux aims to express his perception of the world and society.
His composition will premiere during the concert series in January 2027 as part of ‘Schumann's Rhenish’.
As a young artist, you need talent to stand out from the crowd, but playing opportunities and a professional environment with room for experimentation are at least as important. Through various programmes, Flanders Symphony Orchestra offers talented composers, conductors, musicians and aspiring soloists a taste of orchestral life.
