Today at the Musical Instrument Museum, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture Sven Gatz presented an honorary medal to keyboard player, conductor, researcher, collector and professor Jos van Immerseel.
Jos van Immerseel was lauded by Gatz for a lifetime of merit for Flemish classical music. He founded the symphonic orchestra Anima Eterna Brugge in 1987, which has had the Concertgebouw Brugge as its home base since 2003. It not only performs concerts there but also organises educational activities and records its CDs. Today, Anima has grown into a successful internationally oriented organisation.
In his hometown Antwerp, Van Immerseel taught at the conservatory and organised the international congress “Antwerpiano” in 1989, 1991 and 1993. He gave courses to more than 250 international students there between 1982 and 2003 during the annual master class on the historical instruments of the Museum Vleeshuis.
Abroad, Van Immerseel was a guest conductor with such orchestras as the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Wiener Akademie, the orchestra of the Mozarteum, etc. He built up a unique collection of historical keyboards that accompany him at his concerts and are used in CD recordings.
Van Immerseel’s work can be heard on over 120 CDs recorded for Sony, Deutsche Grammaphone, Channel Classics and since a few years for Alpha, one of Outhere’s leading labels.
