Paul Van Nevel

Paul Van Nevel

Paul Van Nevel (born February 4, 1946 in Hasselt ) is a Belgian conductor , musicologist and art historian. The focus of his work is the polyphonic choral music of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance .

Life

Growing up in a music-loving family, Van Nevel sang up to four hours a day as a teenager. The father also encouraged him to learn all the musical instruments that were in the household. Paul Van Nevel began his music studies at the Maastricht Conservatory before studying at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis from 1969 to 1971 . There he founded the Huelgas Ensemble in 1970 .

The name of the ensemble refers to the Cistercian monastery of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in the west of Burgos , where the young musicologist traveled at the age of 24 with a letter of recommendation from Belgian authorities. During his two-week stay in this monastery, he had the opportunity to study the centuries-old scores archived here .

In the following years he devoted himself intensively to Flemish polyphonic music of the 15th and 16th centuries. Thanks to his work, numerous composers from this period, such as Johannes Ciconia , Nicolas Gombert , Cipriano de Rore , Josquin Desprez , Jacobus de Kerle , Orlando di Lasso , Clemens non Papa , experienced a renaissance.

For his services he received the Prix ​​in Honorem of the Académie Charles Cros in 1994 . His recordings with the Huelgas Ensemble also received numerous awards, such as the Diapason d'or (1996), the Echo Klassik Prize (1997 and 2010), the Cannes Classical Award (1998) and the Choc de l'année (2000 and 2003 ).

Van Nevel is visiting professor at the Sweelinck Conservatory Amsterdam .

Since 2007 he has been married to the Hanoverian musician and music college lecturer Silke Jacobsen. He lives in Hanover and Leuven / Belgium. His nephew Erik Van Nevel is also a musician.

Web links

• Paul Van Nevel at Allmusic (English)
• Vita on huelgasensemble.be