• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTQSpmsskmg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D4f9FAAQ7I
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1coKElFlQAs
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqA1gFOMgZk
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H31UmQ0yvlI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1_3x0b4-_o
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFBhxZKr3Og

Biography

Ann Vancoillie is known as an enthusiastic all-round musician, very active in the Belgian music scene and hired by foreign top ensembles. Her broad education and interests lead her to a very interesting and varied music life ranging from baroque via classical and jazz to highly experimental.

At the age of 17 Ann Vancoillie won the Government Medal with honors in Bruges as a student of Roger Ide and continued studying at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and Ghent with teachers Kati Sebestyen, Zygmunt Kowalski, Henri Raudales, Andre Gertler, Arie Van Lysebeth, Marcel Lequeux and Rafael D'Haene. There she graduated with honors and obtained Higher Diploma’s for violin and chamber music and she graduated further in theoretical subjects. In addition, she received pedagogical diplomas in chamber music and violin. With a scholarship from Lions and Kiwanis Club Bruges she continued studying at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and obtained the final certificate in the classes of Sandor Vegh, Veronika Hagen and Nicolaus Harnoncourt. Additional ‘Masterclasses’ put her in contact with the greatest violin pedagogues such as Dorothea Delay, Ruggiero Ricci, Zachar Bron and others. She has an exceptional Vuillaume-Maline bow, donated to her by the then Prince Albert through the Belgian Vocation Foundation, and currently plays a Carlo Giuseppe Oddone (Torino 1930). Her baroque violin ‘La Divina’ was built especially for her by Marco Anedda (Tuscany) in 2009. She is a first violin soloist at the Flemish Opera and plays contemporary and classical chamber music. As a soloist she also performed the concertos of Mendelssohn, Bruch, Mozart, Beethoven, among others with the National Orchestra of Belgium and the New Flemish Symphony Orchestra. She was concertmaster of the World Youth Orchestra in Poland and Sweden and for several years of the New Flemish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Patrick Peire. She is regularly invited by Marc Minkowski's "Les Musiciens du Louvre" (baroque violin) for example, she was first violinist in Abbado's "Mahler Chamber orchestra", played several concerts with "Champs d'action" with the "Camerata Academica Salzburg" with "I Fiamminghi" etc. In addition to her concerts in the classical environment, her great enthusiasm and creativity lead the way to new music experiences. She collaborated with composers, played several creations for solo violin and improvises her own music. Together with musicians from other cultures she brings virtuoso improvisations in a mix of classic, contemporary and ethnic melody formation, colour and sound research in symbiosis with ethnic instruments. In this context she produced a meditative CD with her own improvisation compositions (www.highgatemusic.com). She improvised on film, dance, art, with ethnic musicians from different cultures and styles. In the summer of 2013 she was selected to represent Belgium in the World Peace Orchestra in Korea, where she was first violinist of the second violins and led the World Peace Soloist ensemble with concerts in Busan, Seoul, the DMZ zone Dorosan Station and Camp Greaves. Two years ago, Ann started to study again in a new field: jazzviolin, jazzsinging and jazzpiano. She studied at the jazzacademy De Poel in Gent with Paola Marquez, Stijn Engels, Jeroen Baert, in New York at the Jazz Academy en in Vermont  at the Adventures in Jazz, with Roni Ben-Hur, Amy London, Dylan Pramuk, Ralph Lalama, Steve Schmidt, Steve Williams, Alvin Helio, John Raymond, Michael Webster en Javier Arau. She tries to mix the knowledgde of jazz in her improvisations, going from very romantic up to jazz and experiemental.

"As long as you have concepts, you'll never see what is true"

By this I mean that if you have finished an assessment, you can not see what is really there. Not everything can be put into words. There are underlying structures, and to feel those, to identify and expose you must be able to empty yourself completely. Therefore I embrace everything that comes towards me with astonishment. What I do in art also sits in my mind.

PRESS

Combining styles (see also the interview with "The Vocation Foundation" http://www.vocatio.be/nl/presentation/#.UlLQ-9JFBLo): The language of the combination of new music, contemporary art, dance, architecture etc. offers me a wealth of inspiration. I want to experience that feeling again and again. The violin is for me a means, not an end. I'm looking for the unusual in a person and my instrument helps me with this. It generates meetings, exchanges and challenges. All my activities, no matter how diverse, touch and influence each other. Having explored many areas during my career I have reaped the benefits of this cross-pollination. I wouldn’t play Baroque like I do now if I hadn’t touched the romance, and I would play contemporary music completely different if I hadn’t had any classical background. Otherwise I also play classical music with other ears after a bath of new music. One could spend hours discussing this topic, but for me those styles and the combinations thereof are absolutely perfect. Each style precedes thorough research and I am also As a perfectionist I believe that each style precedes thorough research. As a result I am confident that I can deliver it in public without any hesitation.

www.annvancoillie.com

Hello dear students! You can find me on Skype under the name ann_vancoillie.