Photo Luk Monsaert
ABOUT
The major part of my (musical) work has by nature an ephemeral character, for it is made for the stage. Music for dance, music theatre, theatre, opera, ... Or all things in between - what's in a name.
John Cage said: "One way to write music: study Duchamp." I guess I did. Looking at existing art and recontextualising it, is a major part of my thinking. Everything is a readymade. And by changing its environment/context we potentially discover new layers of meaning, not intended by the original artist. Or as Schoenberg stated: "Music is not a sound, but a concept." And let's not forget: composing (from the Latin componere) means "putting together".
Steven Prengels is a Belgian composer and artist. He studied at the Lemmens Institute, the University of Leuven, the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp and the Conservatory of Amsterdam. At the latter two he studied composition with Wim Henderickx.
He works mostly for theatre, dance and opera. In recent years he collaborated with national and international artists as Alain Platel, Frank Van Laecke, Johan Simons and Arno Synaeve; and companies as les ballets C de la B, NTGent, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, Ruhr Triennale, Teatro Real Madrid, Athens Epidaurus Festival, Leipzig Schauspielhaus, Bochum Schauspielhaus and Münchner Kammerspiele.
For coming years, collaborations are planned with Alain Platel, Frank Van Laecke, Johan Simons, Sir Mark Elder, les ballets C de la B, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Manchester International Festival, and Bochum Schauspielhaus.
He received several awards and nominations both as an individual artist and as a collaborator on music theatre productions, amongst which: The Herald Angel Award (for En Avant, Marche!, Edinburgh International Theater Festival), Dora Mavor Moore Award (for En Avant, Marche!, Toronto Festival), Laurence Olivier Award nomination (for Gardenia), Zagreb Music Biennale (for La dramaturgie d'une passion), Award for the Most Original Composition by a Young Belgian Composer (for Le Reveil Tam-Tam, Ghent International Film Festival).
He divides his time between composing and working as a visual artist.
Steven Prengels is professor of composition at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp.
(m u s i c ) t h e a t r e
Ombra, 2024
Life and Fate, 2024
Würgeengel, 2023
Mein Gent, 2023
Exhibition, sept tableaux de/sur/pour 'La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même' de Marcel Duchamp, 2009
f i l m
Imaginary Concert N°11, 2021
Imaginary Concerts N°1-10, 2020
Fragments from an unfinished concert, 2020
v i s u a l
In a landscape, DASfest (exposition), 2021
Who wants to dance with me (exposition), 2021
The Eye of the Beholder (exposition), 2019
Septemberfestival, De School van Gaasbeek (exposition), 2018
Exhibition (exposition), 2014
m u s i c (selection)
Timing, 2022
Gefunden, Variations on a text by J.W. von Goethe, 2018-19
The Glass Bead Game, 2018
The World of Yesterday and Tomorrow, 2017
La dramaturgie d'une passion, 2015
Sisyphe, 2012
Wagner in Bayreuth, 2012
Morgenröte, 2010
Visite Guidée Mâlique, 2008-9
Contrapunctus per augmentationem et diminutionem, 2008
Konstellation, 2008
Schäume, 2008