Defoort, Kris

Kris Defoort is a pianist, composer, improviser and ensemble leader. He studied early music and recorder at the Royal Flemish Conservatoire in Antwerp before moving to Liège, where he immersed himself in jazz, contemporary music and free improvisation. He later spent several years in New York, becoming active on the jazz scene and working with musicians such as Jack DeJohnette, Reggie Workman and Mark Turner, as well as the Lionel Hampton Big Band.

After returning to Belgium, Defoort developed a distinctive musical language in which jazz, improvisation, early music and contemporary composition enrich one another. He performed his own work with ensembles such as KD’s Basement Party, KD’s Decade and Dreamtime. His music often begins intuitively, with just a few notes or a short motif, before developing into layered structures in which written passages and improvisation complement each other.

Major works include Variations on a Love Supreme, created with Fabrizio Cassol, Passages, ConVerSations / ConSerVations and the opera The Woman Who Walked into Doors, based on Roddy Doyle’s novel and directed by Guy Cassiers. Defoort also composed House of the Sleeping Beauties, Dedicatio and, in 2025, Music for the Heart, the compulsory work for the Queen Elisabeth Competition.