Music direction of the Sturm und Klang orchestra

Thomas Van Haeperen is the founder and music director of Sturm und Klang. With this ensemble, he explores contemporary music and has premiered numerous works by contemporary composers (Bosse, Darbellay, Deleuze, Devaux, d'Hoop, Dillon, Fafchamps, Fuentes, Guerrero, Lenot, Leroux, Mittmann, Murail, Oelbrandt, Pesson, Rens, Schnittke, Slinckx, Tsilogiannis, Van Rossum, Widmann, Yeznikian, Zhang, ...) and has recorded several albums.

He is also passionate about the classical and romantic repertoire, as well as 20th-century music. Thomas has been invited to conduct the National Orchestra of Belgium, Musiques Nouvelles ensemble, EuropaChorAkademie, Pauliner Kammerorchester, ON, Vibrations, Dextuor, the Orchestra and Choir of Leipzig University, and has been assistant conductor at La Monnaie.

A sensitive educator with a passion for working with young musicians, Thomas Van Haeperen is also a violin professor and head of an orchestra class at the Academy of Arts in the City of Brussels. He is regularly entrusted with conducting orchestra sessions at the Royal Conservatories and higher education music institutions.

As a recipient of the Belgian Foundation for Vocation, he studied orchestral conducting in Germany, under Wolfgang Unger in Leipzig, and attended masterclasses in Mainz with Sylvain Cambreling, from whom he gained an appreciation for the blend of precision and sensitivity in interpreting contemporary repertoire. Holder of an Advanced Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels as a violinist, Thomas Van Haeperen also earned a master's degree in philosophy from UCLouvain. This academic background informs his projects, resonating with the connections between music, thought, memory, and time.