Van Parys, Annelies

Annelies Van Parys is a Flemish composer. She studied piano and composition at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent, where her teachers included Johan Duijck and Luc Brewaeys. Her works are performed in Belgium and internationally and encompass chamber music, ensemble and orchestral works, choral music, opera and music theatre.

Van Parys has developed a distinctive musical language in which timbre, resonance, a strong sense of form and a dialogue with the past play a central role. She draws inspiration from late medieval and Renaissance music, Debussy, spectralism and contemporary instrumental techniques, integrating these influences into a recognisably personal idiom. Major works include Méditation, First Symphony: Carillon, An Index of Memories, Een Oresteia, A War Requiem, Private View, USHER and Notwehr.

As composer in residence at Muziektheater Transparant, she established a strong reputation in opera and music theatre. In 2014, Private View won the inaugural FEDORA – Rolf Liebermann Prize for Opera. USHER takes as its starting point Debussy’s unfinished opera based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe.

Van Parys’s honours include the Flanders–Québec Prize, the Sabam Award for Contemporary Classical Music and two Klara Awards. She teaches composition at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.