cello

Karel Steylaerts studied at first with Luc Tooten in Brussels and later at the Brussels Conservatoire with Carlo Schmitz and at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne with Maria Kliegel. As a member of the European Community Youth Orchestra he had the privilege to work under great conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein and Antal Dorati. That’s where his great love for the symphonic orchestra arose. He was a prize winner of the 1990 Tenuto competition. In that same year he founded the Tröndlin Pianoforte Trio with whom he made several recordings playing on period instruments for the labels KochDiscover and Etcetera Records.

Since 2008 Karel Steylaerts is Principal Cellist at the Brussels Philharmonic. In 2006 he founded “TrioFenix”, a string trio with whom he is regularly invited to perform in many national and international festivals. Since 2017, he has been associated with the Queen Elisabeth Competition for cello. He accompanies candidates in their first round playing Boccherini sonatas.
His recording of the complete suites for cello solo by Bach was released in 2022 on the Etcetera label (KTC1766)

He teaches at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles. His plays a cello made by Lorenzo Ventapane in Naples in the year 1835.

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