Benoît Chantry

Benoît Chantry is a musician. He trained at the music school in Tournai and afterwards at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels (percussion, counterpoint, orchestra conducting, composition, jazz), and soon after he freed himself from the constraints of the classical repertoire. Improvisation and deeply-­‐rooted desire to create have led him on a path which he still follows today, and which allows him to express himself with sincerity and intensity as well as considerable research.  In each musical experience he likes playing with the balance between  the written and the non written. His music might seem to resemble him : it is often  an  invitation to profound feelings but it is ethereal and ultimately optimistic.

His longing for creation, which he realises in compositions commissioned by orchestras or recognized solists, guides him to different places : he has worked for  example  for  the  ensemble "Musiques Nouvelles" and the "European Contemporary Orchestra" (ECO) ; his compositions for bands, often evocative and descriptive, are played on several continents. They gave him the opportunity to win different contests and to represent Belgium in the context of the "Wind Orchestra World Project". He regularly composes for television, theatre, song  and shows ("Festival de Wallonie", "Lille 2004", "Les Inattendues", "Mons 2015", etc.). Together with the Tunisian oud player Ziad Ben Youssef, he has recently created a musical show based on the text written by Paul André, "Les Contes des Sages du Désert".

His need to communicate, which he can develop when he works with orchestras or student classes, also leads him to quite different universes : he has conducted about twenty ensembles ("Orchestre royal de chambre de Wallonie", "Chapelle musicale de Tournai", "Nuove Musiche", "Orchestre  Symphonique  du Conservatoire de Bruxelles",  "Divertimento-­‐Eurométropole", "Hageland Wind Orchestra", "Ad Hoc Wind Orchestra", "Royal Band of the Belgian Navy", etc.), in concert or in during recording, and he is the permanent conductor of the Concert Band "La Concorde" in Péronnes (B) where he enjoys exploring new paths. At the Brussels Conservatory he teaches harmony and sight reading.