Michiel Haspeslagh
Michiel Haspeslagh (°1982) has been singing in the children’s choir Clari Cantuli and later Clari Cantus from the start in 1989. In 2013 he obtained a master’s degree in singing (Lieve Jansen) and choral conducting (Erik Van Nevel) at the LUCA School of Arts, Lemmens campus. Since then he has further developed his skills by following international master classes with Daniel Reuss and Hervé Niquet, among others.
In addition to Clari Cantores, Michiel also conducts Carmina Chamber Choir and Bruxell’A Cappella. Since the choral conducting masterclass at the Flemish Radio Choir in 2017, he has already been engaged as a guest conductor by this renowned ensemble twice. He is also regularly asked to be their choir director in preparation for oratorios, opera, symphonic projects and CD recordings. For example, in September 2018 he prepared the opera Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky) and in 2019 he worked closely with Sir James MacMillan in preparation for their concert series with the extremely difficult ‘Seven Angels’ as the main work.
Conducting assignments have taken Michiel to Taiwan, Germany and Poland several times. In the summer of 2019 there was an extremely successful concert tour in Germany where Michiel conducted Carl Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’, with a choir of 165 young singers (18-25 years) from all over the world. Since 2018, Michiel has been appointed as a guest teacher at the ‘Landesakademie für die musizierende Jugend’ in Ochsenhausen (Baden-Württenberg, Germany) as artistic director for projects around both traditional choral music for larger groups and light music (pop/jazz, gospel) for smaller ensembles . In March 2019 he also conducted the ‘Symphonic Choir’ of the LUCA School of Arts with a challenging psalm program for choir, brass and organ. And at the same college he conducted the Mozart opera ‘La clemenza di Tito’ in the autumn of 2021. In January 2022, Michiel prepared the choir of ‘Opera Vlaanderen’ for the performance of the opera production ‘Cosi fan tutte’ (W.A. Mozart) in collaboration with Trevor Pinnock.
As a singer (tenor), Michiel has been permanently affiliated with the Flemish Radio Choir since November 2021 and as a freelancer with professional ensembles such as the Orpheus Vokalensemble (Germany), Currende, Studium Chorale (Netherlands) & Cappella Pratensis.
