bio

Daan Janssens (°1983) is a Belgian composer. He creates operas, ensemble and orchestral works, as well as solo and chamber music and works with electronics. His compositions are characterized by a pronounced dramatic structure, large musical arcs, and a virtuosic instrumental writing.
Daan Janssens received commissions from Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, the Queen Elisabeth Competition, the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, the Centre Henri Pousseur, and the Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon. He has previously been season composer at Concertgebouw Brugge and was Focus composer at the Transit Festival Leuven. In 2023, his portrait album (…à suivre…) was released, and in 2024, his opera Brodeck was premiered at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.
Daan Janssens teaches composition and orchestration at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent.

Born in Bruges (1983), Daan Janssens studied violin, piano, music theory, composition and many more courses at the Bruges music conservatory. In Bruges he got his first composition lessons with Octaaf Van Geert. From 2002 till 2007, he studied composition at the Ghent Conservatory with Frank Nuyts, and attended, among others, classes by Godfried-Willem Raes (improvisation) and Filip Rathé (analyses and beyond). He visited different international composition seminars and master classes with Peter Eötvös, Luca Francesconi, Magnus Lindberg, Bruno Mantovani…. Besides composition seminars, he attended conducting classes/seminars with Ensemble Modern, Johannes Kalitzke, Marco Angius and Lucas Vis. In 2016, he obtained a Phd in arts at Ghent University/Ghent School of arts.

Daan Janssens has collaborated intensively with LOD, a Ghent based music theatre production house, which resulted in march 2012 in Les Aveugles, a chamber opera after Maurice Maeterlinck. This production was made in collaboration with the Liége/Paris based visual artist Patrick Corrilon. In April 2017, his second opera was premièred, Menuet, after a novel by Louis Paul Boon, in collaboration with stage director Fabrice Murgia. In 2024, Janssens presented his third opera, Brodeck, after a novel by Philippe Claudel, again in collaboration with Fabrice Murgia.

Recent works include the opera Brodeck, Titan for violoncello and electronics, written for Arne Deforce in collaboration with Centre Henri Pousseur and Notturno, for clarinet, violoncello and piano.

Upcoming projects include a new work for harpsichord and electronics, for Goska Isphording and Centre Henri Pousseur (première April 2025), and a new concerto for violin, orchestra and electronics, commissioned by Brussels Philharmonic (première season 2025/2026).