De Maeyer, Jan

Jan De Maeyer is a composer, oboist and music educator. He studied oboe, chamber music and composition at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, where his teachers included Willem Kersters, and combined his musical training with studies in classical philology and ancient history at KU Leuven. This dual background remained important throughout his career: alongside instrumental music, he regularly wrote vocal works based on literary and humanist texts, including poetry by Janus Secundus.

As a performer, De Maeyer was principal oboist of the Antwerp Philharmonic and active in several chamber music ensembles, including the woodwind trio Avena, which he co-founded. From the 1970s onwards, he was affiliated with the Royal Flemish Conservatoire Antwerp as a teacher of literature studies, chamber music and oboe. He later taught chamber music there. Between 1988 and 2012, he was director of the Municipal Conservatoire of Mechelen, where he helped develop, among other areas, the departments of early music and jazz & popular music.

His compositions often seek a balance between reason and emotion, tension and repose, modern techniques and practical performability. Works such as La Consolazione, Maclinia and, above all, the cycle Basia reflect the breadth of his musical and literary interests.