Biography
Kris Oelbrandt
Kris Oelbrandt was born on November 13 1972 in Sint-Gillis-Waas (Belgium).
The world of music opened up for him as a child through the violin, the piano and music theory. It was especially the latter, the background of music, that fascinated him: how can you tell a story with music, what harmonies and sounds are possible, how does mathematics turn into poetry? Composing and theorizing became his great passion, much more than playing an instrument. When he was nineteen, he had a small pipe organ built by the Pels-d’Hondt company according to a ‘dual’ 13-tone system he had designed.
At the Antwerp conservatory he obtained first prizes in music theory and harmony, then in 1996 at the Brussels conservatory he became master in music writing (option composition) magna cum laude under Rafaël d’Haene. In 2001 he completed his training with Luc van Hove as graduate in composition at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.
From childhood on Kris felt also attracted to something completely different besides music: a life of prayer, stillness and solitude. That’s why at 29 he decided to follow his heart: he entered the Trappist Abbey Maria Refuge in Zundert, where he felt at home since a long time. He continued to compose as a monk and built up an oeuvre of idiosyncratic religious concert music: solo works, chamber music, oratorios, choral music and orchestra. In doing so, he always strove for narratives (instrumental or vocal) that make the bridge between the religious and the musical, two worlds that coincide in his thinking. He received a bachelor’s degree in theology magna cum laude from the Leuven Catholic University in 2009. His thesis focuses on the (im)possibility of translating theological concepts into music, with particular attention to the vision of Olivier Messiaen.
Many internationally renowned musicians and ensembles have already enjoyed performing his music. In 2000 he won the composition prize of the Muizelhuis Concerts with his piano trio Resonances and in 2010 he was laureate of the Weimarer Frühjahrstage für zeitgenössische Musik with his Concert Rhapsody for violin and orchestra.
There came a moment when Kris felt that he could not hold both the abbey, which wants to create an oasis of silence and prayer, and the music, which strives for sound and communication. That is why he exited the abbey in 2021 with pain in his heart. From then on he continues to work outside the abbey walls on his oeuvre of religious music, intended for church or concert hall. Since this period he has been composing according to a self-designed tonal system, based on melodic atonality and harmonic modality. Because silences are constitutive in it, he calls this music auditio divina.

The leading lamb – Interview with Kris Oelbrandt, part 1
Highlighted work
The leading lamb
The leading lamb
Interview part 2
The leading lamb
Interview part 3
The leading lamb
Interview part 4a
Musicians & ensembles
Renaat Beheydt (pno)
Nico Couck (git)
Jean-Michel Dayez (pno)
Elisabeth Deletaille (vl)
Nicolas Deletaille (vc)
Joris Derder (bar)
Luc Devos (pno)
Pierre Feraux (pno)
Paul Hermsen (pno)
D. Holst (sopr)
Fabian Jardon (pno)
Jan van Landeghem (org)
Elsa de Lacerda (vl)
Claire Lechien (vl)
Aldo Platteau (bar)
Marie de Roy (sopr)
Daniel Rubinstein (vl)
Ivan Siller (pno)
Amaru Soren (org)
Jenny Spanoghe (vl)
Viviane Spanoghe (vc)
Egidius Streiff (vl)
Maté Szücs (vla)
Peter van de Velde (org)
Clara Inglese (sopr)
Antwerp Metropolitan Choir (cond: Sebastiaan van Steenberge)
Apsara
Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles (cond: Jean-Paul Dessy)
Ensemble Sturm und Klang (cond: Thomas van Haeperen):
Margaret Hermant (vl)
Cécile Lantenois (vl)
Dominica Eyckmans (vla)
Catherine Lebrun (vc)
Philippe Saucez (kl)
Jean-Louis Maton (perc)
Feniks piano trio
Gaggini quartet
Goeyvaerts string trio
Landini quartet:
Jenny Spanoghe (vl)
Hans de Vos (vl)
Eva van de Ven (vla)
Marijke Gonnissen (vc)
Loh-Orchester Sondershausen (cond: Markus L. Frank)
Musa Horti (cond: Peter Dejans)
Orchestre de Chambre de Wallonie (cond: Daniël Gazon)
Rachmaninov trio
Simoens trio
Cees-Willem van Vliet (pno)
I Solisti del Vento:
Lieve Goossens (fl)
Frank Schoofs (ob)
Nele Delafonteyne (kl)Francis Pollet (fg)
Oneiros ensemble:
Liesbeth Vreeburg (harp)
Johan Olof (vl)
Karin Leutscher (fl)
Arwen Salama-van der Burg (vla)
Charles Watt (vc)
Els Mondelaers (mzo)
Ad Parnassum koor (cond: Anthony Zielhorst)
Quirine Viersen (vc)
Berend Eijkhout (bar)
Geert de Bièvre (vc)
Ralph van Raat (pno)
Jan Hage (org)
Ella Oelbrandt (harp)
Emmanuelle Schotsaert (sopr)
Peter Thomas (org)
Fernando Linares Correa (bar)
Santiago Basante Arias (git)
Markuskwintet
Krijtberg-project choir
Capella Brabant (cond: Marc Versteeg)
Dudok quartet
Ernestine Stoop (harp)
Niek Klein-Jan (perc)
Rieneke Brink (picc)
Katrien Baerts (sopr)
Elsbet Gerritsen (mzo)
Mattijs van der Woerd (bar)
Nicolas de Troyer (org)
Gerwin Hoekstra (org)
Aquinokoor (cond: Erik Korterink)
Bauwien van der Meer (sopr)
Margreet Rietveld (sopr)
Franske van der Wiel (mzo)
Roelien van Wageningen (mzo)
Dolf Drabbels (ten)
Albert van Ommen (ten)
Jan Kruisselbrink (bas)
Daniël Hermán Mostert (bar)
Luc Rombouts (beiaard)
Saevus Ensemble (cond: Johannes de Wilde)
Filip Martens (pno)
Pieter Depraetere (counter tenor)
Claire Bourdet (vl)
Maxime Stasyk (vl)
Vincent Hepp (vla)
Ere Lievonen (org)
Riko Fukuda (pno)