Stef Van Vynckt
Stef Van Vynckt is a Belgian harpist redefining the instrument through close collaboration with composers and a sustained commitment to contemporary repertoire. His work expands the harp’s expressive vocabulary—from fragile, suspended textures to amplified abrasion and raw physicality—positioning it as an instrument of time, attention, and durational presence.
Stef has premiered and commissioned works by a wide range of leading voices in new music, including Dai Fujikura, Christopher Cerrone, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Alexander Schubert, Jason Eckardt, and others. These collaborations form the foundation of an evolving body of work that reimagines the harp as a contemporary instrument—capable of intimacy, disruption, and architectural resonance.
He performs regularly with Ensemble Modern and has appeared at major international venues and festivals including the Berliner Philharmonie (DE), the Elbphilharmonie (DE), Bang on a Can’s Long Play Festival in New York (US), LOUD Weekend at MASS MoCA (US), Classical:NEXT (DE), Darmstädter Ferienkurse (DE), Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (CA), Avaloch Farm Music Institute (US) and cresc… Biennale für aktuelle Musik (DE), Herbert Foundation (BE), among others.
As founder of Extended Music Collective and co-founder of Inland Ocean, an international cooperative of performance artists, Stef approaches music-making as a collaborative and curatorial practice. His projects often integrate electronics, spatial listening, and conceptual frameworks drawn from literature and visual art.
Stef is professor harp at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, a Britten Pears Young Artist (2025–2026) and a Klara Twintiger (2026), and maintains artistic bases in Belgium, Frankfurt, and Toronto.
© Paulius Sliaupa
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
James Turrell once remarked: “I use light as a material, but my medium is actually perception.” This programme begins from that idea. Bringing together works for harp and electronics across centuries and aesthetics, this concert explores music not as a fixed object, but as an experience that comes into being through listening. Sound unfolds in relation to memory, attention, space, and time. Resonances linger beyond their source. Familiar gestures return altered. What we hear is shaped as much by perception as by the notes themselves.