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First name: Raoul de
Last name: Smet
Dates: 1936
Category: Quartet
Nationality: belgian
Opus name: Ulrike, een antieke tragedie (2004)
Publisher: CeBeDem
Peculiarities: See: http://opac.libis.be/F/CC8498QFUTJAAAI46PJ42REHYPU16SJFB9E1XXCDDPS7H59N5Q-36230?func=full-set-set&set_number=002932&set_entry=000407&format
Information: Raoul DE SMET was born on 27 October 1936 in Borgerhout. He studied the philology of Romance languages and music history at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. After this he took a year of specialisation on a study grant in Madrid and Salamanca. He then worked as a teacher for four years in Tunisia, after which he taught Spanish at the Katholieke Vlaamse Hogeschool in Antwerp. His gained his basic musical training (solfège, harmony, piano) at the Music Academy in Deurne. Apart from this training, he was self-taught as a musician until he undertook studies in 1966 with Lucien Goethals and Louis De Meester at the IPEM (Institute for Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music) in Ghent, with August Verbesselt in Antwerp and with Ton de Leeuw in Amsterdam. Through his own studies of theoretical works (Schönberg, Krenek, Koechlin, Messiaen and others) and of scores, and by listening to a wide variety of genres, he developed his own personal musical language. In 1972 De Smet took part in the Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, where two of his works were performed. He also participated in the Gaudeamus Days in Bilthoven. In 1976 he took part in the Seminar on Contemporary American Music in Salzburg. In 1977 he represented IPEM at the Colloquium Musica/Sintesi as part of the Biennale in Venice. From 1974 to 1994 Raoul De Smet organised the Orphische Avonden (Orphic Evenings) in Antwerp, featuring concerts of contemporary (mainly Flemish) chamber music in Antwerp. Between 1980 and 1984 he was a member of the board of the Centrum voor Muziek in Leuven. From 1983 to 1993, De Smet programmed concerts of contemporary music in the foyer of the Antwerp Stadsschouwburg (City theatre). In 1976, 1985 and 1990 he organised the Electronic Music Days at the ICC (International Cultural Centre) and the deSingel. In 1981 he began the E.M. series, an edition in facsimile of chamber music by Flemish composers. In 1987 he established the Orpheus Prize, a biennial international competition for the interpretation of contemporary chamber music. In 1995, he received the Fuga Trophy. Since 1999 he has organised the Belgian Chocolates Festival. (CeBeDem)