Curriculum

Concert Hall and Festival Experience

Current

Mariinsky Theatre - New Horizons Festival with Valery Gergiev in St Petersburg, Russian Federation.
Director-Founder of Music Projects For Brussels www.mpfb.org
Expert Eu for Creative Europe
Consultant Kun Opera
Productions running in Shanghai Arts Festival, Sochi Winter festival, Bashmet Spring Festival in Yaroslavl, Moscow December Nights.

2011

Curated and produced the European tour of the European Saxophone Ensemble, supported by the European Union as a Cultural Ambassador.
Creative manager of the No Borders Orchestra bringing musicians from the countries of former Yugoslavia together in one ambitious orchestra.

2009-2011

Director of Ars Musica. One of Europe’s leading contemporary music festivals. Reinventing the festival in an innovative international context leading to doubling audience numbers.

2007-2009

Director of Flanders Festival Brussels; the Biggest, Boldest, and most Beautiful Festival of Belgium. In these three years ticket sales more than tripled following the introduction of a pro-active communication strategy and of course, the production of new, cutting-edge concerts.

2002-2006

Handelsbeurs in Ghent, Belgium
A 400 seat / 1,000 standing ‘state of the art’ concert hall
Finding new ways to produce and promote music, e.g. presenting rock group DEUS and ‘lied’ singer Olaf Bär performing ‘Winterreise’ in the same concert,.
Introducing international musical talent to Belgian audiences including: Wirsaladze, Kopatchsinkaja, Gabetta, Arcanto and Jerusalem Quartets and arranging performances by leading musicians including: Argerich, Berezovsky, Freire, Gutman, Kremer and Sokolov.

1993-2002

De Gele Zaal in Gent, Belgium (including interludes in Moscow from 1992 to 2001)
A 150 seat contemporary music hall with many Belgian premieres of composers such as Knaifel, Ustvolskaya, Silvestrov and Shostakovitch.

Guiding principles

To produce concerts, which rethink and regenerate the format of what a concert could/should be, whilst maintaining respect for the music, musicians or audience.
To establish a very direct and personal contact with the performing artist. To combine this with the accoustic qualities of the halls concerned,while renewing audiences and ensuring staff are trained to focus on their audiences and musicians. This makes it possbile to produce concerts and festivals that are more cost-effective and artistically successful.
In Flanders Festival Brussels Patrick De Clerck directed two household names in Belgian musical culture: the KlaraFestival (International Brussels Music Festival) and the European Galas, prestigious events at the forefront of the music scene featuring concerts by the Berliner Philharmoniker, Concertgebouworkest, Philharmonia, Cleveland, Royal Philharmonic, Wiener Philharmoniker, etc. KlaraFestival was a trend-setting music festival for a bigger audience. Benchmarking communication strategies and new tools have been developed: Festival on Tour, Village on the Road, Living Room Music, Sporza Musica

Other Musical Praxis

General manager of Megadisc Classics since 2002, having been artistic producer since 1993, including the historic Ustvolskaya recordings with Oleg Malov, Silvestrov, Terterian, Sumera, Knaifel and many more, recording with musicians such as Argerich, Lubimov, Ural Philharmonic Orchestra. Sold the label in 2013.
www.megadisc-classics.com

Master Classes and lectures

Lecturing on new models for festivals, cultural communication, marketing classical music, contemporary music, or praxis of contemporary music interpretation in the St Petersburg and Moscow Conservatories, Vilnius Conservatory (3x), Winterthur Conservatory, Juilliard School of Music New York, Tallinn Conservatory (2x), Goldsmith College London, Yekaterinburg State Conservatory, Antwerp Conservatory, Beijing Conservatory (3x), Hong Kong Arts Festival, Nan Jing Culture group, Shanghai Conservatory, Beijing Capital University, The Kosovo Contemporary Music Festival, Shanghai International Arts Festival, Holland Festival, Moscow Contemporary Music Festival, European Festival Association – Keynote speech on working with China (Ostrava), Sochi Winter Festival (2x).

Education

High School: Koninklijk Atheneum, Bruges (Latin, Modern Languages, Social Sciences)
University: Bachelor in History of Art (Musicology) State University Ghent
Master African Languages and Culture, State University Ghent
Four years towards a Ph.D. in Cognitive Anthropology, State University Ghent.
Post-graduate: Intensive Training Sessions in Marketing and Communication Vlerick School/VDAB, course project: fundraiser for Nieuwpoort Theatre Ghent
Studied Cello with Hans Mannes and worked at IPEM and IRCAM (1977-1979)

Languages

Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Russian