Xavier Vandamme to Become New Director of the Early Music Festival in Utrecht

After working as Romanist for the University of Louvain and as a presenter at the classical music radio channel, Xavier Vandamme has become the Early Music programmer for the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels. For a couple of months now he’s also been assisting the Centre’s director Paul Dujardin. Starting from May 2009, Vandamme will succeed director and concert programmer Jan Van den Bossche at the Early Music Festival in Utrecht.

This ten-day festival with more than 200 concerts yearly attracts about 60,000 visitors. "I’ve been following the festival closely for ten years," says Xavier Vandamme. "It is incomparable. By founding a centre for early music in a renovated church, the festival will soon be able to really embrace the city and give it a special touch." 

Flemish heavyweights are currently quite sought after in the Dutch classical music scene. Lieven Bertels started as music programmer at the Holland Festival a while ago. Guy Coolen was asked to work for the Opera Days Rotterdam and the Frysk Festival this year. Tino Haenen recently became director of the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t Ij and starting from December, Jan Raes will be leading the Concertgebouworkest in Amsterdam.