André LAPORTE
(1931)
Born in Oplinter (Brabant, Belgium) in 1931, André Laporte began his music studies at the Lemmens Institute in Mechelen (organ, piano, counterpoint and fugue) and won the Lemmens-Tinel Prize in 1958. He studied musicology and Modern Philosophy concurrently at the "Université Catholique de Louvain".
André Laporte has worked for the BRT since 1963, where he has served as programmer, programme coordinator and musical production director at Radio 3. In 1989, he became production director of the BRTN Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 1993 to 1996 served as director of artistic ensembles.
As of 1960, he has taken part in the Darmstadt summer course and the "New Music Course" in Cologne where he met, among others, P. Boulez, B. Maderna, L. Berio, K. Stockhausen, G. Ligeti and M. Kagel.
From 1974 to 1996, André Laporte taught theory, analysis and composition at the Brussels Conservatoire Royal. He won the Italia Prize in 1976 for his oratorio La vita non è sogno. In 1986, his opera Das Schloss was performed at the Monnaie (German production followed in Saarbrücken in 1991). Many of his compositions have won awards and been performed and recorded at international festivals.
André Laporte regularly takes part in international juries and is very active in a variety of organisations (SIMS, Conseil de la Musique, Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Sabam).