Belgian composer and pedagogue Frederik Van Rossum has died at the age of 85. Born in Brussels in 1939, he trained at the conservatory of his native cityWhile he drew inspiration from Stravinsky, Berg and Varèse in his early works, he was also interested in the research, a little further east, of Lutosławski, Ligeti and Górecki. His music, characterized by a “romantic expressionist tradition” enriched with contemporary and avant-garde elements, has been widely performed and celebrated internationally.
Essentially instrumental, more rarely vocal, it is intended for his instrument, the piano, or for various formations – from chamber ensembles to the full orchestzra.
Frederik van Rossum was professor of composition and analysis at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, then at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Waterloo, and was director of the Académie de Musique de Watermael-Boisfort on the outskirts of Brussels. In his fifties, however, he gave up these activities to devote himself exclusively to composition. From 1995 to 2000, he was composer-in-residence at the Flanders Festival. Since 2004, he has been a member of Belgium’s Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts.
