The virtuoso pianist, composer and author Geert Callaert has obtained the highest degrees for piano, chamber music, piano accompaniment, advanced musical analysis, composition and conducting (the special prize LemmensTinel) at the former Lemmens Institute.
In 2002 he graduated at the Orpheus Institute with a project on the piano music and chamber music with percussion of Stockhausen, Xenakis and Wuorinen. During his formative years he participated in many seminars, among them the Stockhausen courses (Stockhausen Courses 1998, 1999, 2000, Kürten, Germany) and seminars at the IRCAM in Paris.
Today, he is much sought after as a soloist and chamber musician at home and abroad because of his large and virtuoso repertoire, ranging across the whole gamut from classical to new music.
His compositions and writing abilities have constantly gained interest worldwide. His performances as a pianist and a conductor as well as his own music compositions can be found on over 30 CDs and DVDs. He collaborated on different film scorings as a performer and his name pops up on a regular base in the credits of films such as High Rise and many others.
He is currently a professor piano in the Master of Music Programme of the Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Different composers – Marc Yeats (UK), Robert Groslot (Belgium), Michael Sahl (USA), Idin Samimi Mofakham (Iran), Martyna Kosecka (Poland), Kee Yong Chong (Singapore), Michael Sahl (USA) – have written their most beautiful piano music for him.
Geert Callaert is a member of the artistic board, a co-founder of the HERMESensemble and a core performer in the ensemble.
At the beginning of 2016 the Union of Belgian Composers has awarded him the FUGUE Trophy for the performance of Belgian art music in an unanimous vote. He often collaborates with different professional ensembles and orchestras in Belgium and he is a welcome guest at festivals and international competitions worldwide. In May and June 2015 he has performed Green Table during the concert tour “In Flanders Fields” with Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (read a superb concert critics in the Financial Times of May 12th 2015). April 2016 he was performing all Persian and Belgian new music as a star soloist at the First Contemporary Music Festival in Tehran (Iran).
He has published different articles and texts in the past on contemporary music and art in general for different occasions.
September-October 2017 and March-April 2018 he has been a music director for two new productions with the Royal Ballet of Flanders creating new music by Gavin Bryars with stage director Edouard Lock.
