Donemus Webwinkel — Michiels, Bart

Bart Michiels is a Flemish composer based in Antwerp. Inspired by the endless color possibilities and sheer power of the modern symphony orchestra, he focuses mainly on writing richly scored orchestral compositions.
In ‘I Sit and Look Out’, his most recent work for choir & orchestra, Michiels clearly states this love for orchestral music. Based on a poem by Walt Whitman, the work features Michiels’ typical rhythmically vivid style and was premiered by Brabant Koor and Kamerata Zuid in Muziekgebouw Eindhoven in April 2022.
Next to orchestral compositions, Michiels also focuses on writing choral music. One example is his recent work ‘De Profundis’, a composition for mixed choir & organ, commissioned by Capella Brabant.
Michiels’ music is all about drawing in the listener in a sincere way. It’s about evoking deep emotions within the listener, even a feeling of transcendence if you will. Through simple forms and a clear harmonic language, he writes pieces that have an immediate appeal to listeners yet are never trivial.
Fueled by his background in popular music, a central pillar of his style is the fusing of elements from classical music and contemporary alternative music. In addition, Michiels also combines electronic elements into his compositions. Fascinated by the expressive capabilities of the human voice, his music often features a central role for choir or singers.
The essence of Michiels’ work can be found in its simplicity of form but complexity of expressive power. For him, the challenge of composing music mainly comes down to - to put it into his own words ‘writing the right notes at the right times’.