I’m Stijn, living in Leuven, Belgium, and passionate about music. I’m a professional cellist, and I divide my time between composing, producing, recording, performing and teaching!

 

In  2018 I made an important step in my artistic life, concentrating all my creative energy on composing, producing, recording and performing my own music, letting out the music that is in me, without any genre restrictions and discovering the cello in my own way.

 

In my compositions for cello solo I have two important goals. First of all I want my music to be authentic to me and secondly I want it to be understandable and accessible to a large audience, with no particular need for any kind of musical background. In 2019 I released my first solo album INNER CELLO, an important milestone for me. And in May 2022 there is the release of my second solo album CELLO SOULS, another milestone. My cello compositions go through many stages before I consider them shareable. They need to stand the test of me not getting tired of them, but inspiring me over and over again. And they need to arrive to the final stage in which I don’t want to change anything anymore, often resulting in over 50 versions.

 

My Dialogues, released from 2019 until 2021, are artistic collaborations based upon my cello solo compositions. Deep gratitude to guest artists pianist Kim Van den Brempt, oboe player Joris Van den Hauwe and violinist Hugh Desmond for stepping with me into this adventure. There are more collaborations under development. Follow me on social media or subscribe to my newsletter to be informed.

 

In March 2022 I released my first fully improvised album FIRST MEETING together with pianist/composer Johan Hoogewijs. There are more improvisation based albums to come, and I see them as an important counter weight to my composed albums.

 

My music did well for me, and I saw a similar effect on people listening to my music. That is the main reason why I decided to share my music with the world. What is special about my music? Nothing. But listening to it might trigger something inside of you, and bring something positive in your life. It might help you to connect with your fantasy, or bring memories, or make you travel inside your mind, or even touch your soul. And if it doesn’t, that’s ok too. There is so much beauty in this world. Through my musical projects I hope to add a bit of beauty in my own personal way.