Peter Swinnen (Belgium)

• Composer, Head of Music at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel
• Academician of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts

Peter Swinnen was born on 31 January 1965 in Lier. From 1983 to 1992 he studied at Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, where he earned first prizes in music history, cello, chamber music, composition and practical harmony. He became a graduate of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo after studying with André Laporte from 1989 to 1992. In 1993 he took master classes with Michael Finnissy and five years later with Brian Ferneyhough. In 2009 Swinnen also obtained a Doctorate of Arts from the Free University of Brussels.

From 1990 to 1997 he taught cello in various music schools, and since 1992 he has also taught analysis at KCB. In 2002 and 2004, he added Music Technology and Composition respectively. He also worked from 1997 to 2004 at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven for the ear training programme UniSono. Between 2004 and 2015 Swinnen worked on a project concerning score analysis, in cooperation with KCB and the Mathematics Department of the Free University of Brussels. In addition he worked freelance for VRT (the national broadcast cooperation) until 2008 and is regularly asked to provide the Live Electronics for various ensembles and also as sound director for CD recordings. From 2008 to 2017 Swinnen was director of KCB. In 2021 he became head of the Music Department of Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel.

For his complete works he was awarded the 1991 CERA Prize - Youth and Music Flanders, and his opera The Petrifying Blue received the 1992 Provincial Prize for Music Composition from the Province of Antwerp. He also wrote music for the BRTN film Andres, a realisation by Dirk Greyspeirt with choreography by José Besprosvany, which won the Premio Choreografo Elettronico 1993 and, two years later, the 34th Prize Bert Leysen. For his piece Quar'l Peter Swinnen was awarded the "Prix de Musique Contemporaine from Quebec" in 1997. Twice he won the National Composition Competition of the Queen Elisabeth Competition: in 1997 with Canzone and in 2001 with Ciaccona. In 2005 the Royal Flemish Academy of Sciences and Arts awarded him the prize Laureate of the Class of Arts.