Berten D'Hollander

In the beginning... ...there was no indication that six-year-old Berten would become a professional musician.
It was rather by accident that a child with no musical background in the family discovered his passion for music after enrolling in a free ear training program offered by the local wind orchestra Santa Cecilia. This event led Berten D’Hollander to his very first flute lesson—oddly enough, offered to him by the orchestra’s conductor, a clarinetist.
To everyone’s surprise, after graduating from high school, Berten decided to apply to the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp instead of continuing his education at the university. This choice was not met with enthusiasm by his parents.
Fortunately, Jan van Reeth, flute professor at the Royal Antwerp Conservatory and principal flutist of the Belgian Radio Orchestra at the time, came to his rescue. He sensed a certain potential in Berten and supported him in pursuing musical education at the conservatory.
From that point, events followed one another in a whirlwind of coincidences. Less than a year later, Berten D’Hollander joined the Antwerp Opera Orchestra as a piccolo player. Soon after, he received an impressive number of offers to join several other prominent Belgian orchestras, including the Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Orchestra.
In the meantime, he graduated cum laude from the Antwerp Conservatory and accepted a position as flute instructor at Leuven University in Belgium, thus combining busy performing and teaching schedules.
Over the past twenty years, Berten D’Hollander’s growing interest in contemporary music—with its highly demanding technical challenges—led him to become an active member of Musiques Nouvelles, the highly regarded Belgian ensemble for contemporary music and the oldest of its kind in Europe. Berten continued his teaching journey by accepting a position at the Cologne Academy of Music and Dance in Germany (Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln). He believes teaching supported him in his desire to search and discover, to continue his evolution as an artist with a remarkably personal language, and to deepen his understanding of music and of the world in general.
Dr D’Hollander currently teaches at Széchenyi István University in Győr, where he leads a dynamic flute studio. His most successful masterclasses and international summer courses have gained him popularity across Europe, from Belgium and Germany to Hungary, Poland, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, and Kosovo. He takes pride in seeing his students hold top positions in some of the most prestigious orchestras across different countries.
Berten D’Hollander has released eight albums. His interpretation of the Twelve Fantasias for Solo Flute by Telemann was highly praised by both Baroque specialists and contemporary flutists. His most recent recordings include collaborations with French guitarist Nicolas Lestoquoy, Croatian pianist Anna Granik. In recent seasons, he has performed and taught in the USA, Italy, Hungary, Kosovo, and Bulgaria.
The upcoming season includes the premieres of concertos dedicated to Berten D’Hollander by Stéphane Orlando and Nina Siniakova.