About Ewald Demeyere
Ewald Demeyere (b.1974) studied at the Koninklijk Vlaams Muziekconservatorium in Antwerp, where, besides winning first prizes in solfège, written and practical harmony, counterpoint and fugue, he obtained his master's degree for harpsichord in Jos van Immerseel's class.
On completion of his studies in 1997, he was engaged as a teacher of harmony, counterpoint and fugue by the Koninklijk Vlaams Muziekconservatorium. In 2002 he succeeded Jos van Immerseel as Professor of Harpsichord, and teaches harpsichord there on the instruments in the famous collection of the Vleeshuis Museum in Antwerp.
As a player of chamber music he has worked with, among others, Barthold and Sigiswald Kuijken and Paul Dombrecht. Since 1993 he has been a member of La Petite Bande (Sigiswald Kuijken) and Il Fondamento (Paul Dombrecht).
In July 2004 he was Guest of Honour at the Festival of Flanders Musica Antiqua in Bruges.
Ewald Demeyere has taken part in many recordings for radio and television. Among his CD recordings, for the ACCENT label, are Eight Keyboard Sonatas by Thomas Augustine Arne, Sonatas & Fugues by Wilhelm Friedmann Bach, Sonatas for Flute and Harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach (with Barthold Kuijken), Johann Sebastian Bach – the Young Virtuoso, the complete Sonatas for flute and basso continuo by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (with Barthold Kuijken), Pièces de Clavecin by Joseph-Hector Fiocco, a disc of Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti and Flute Sonatas by the Bach Sons (with Barthold Kuijken).
In 2007 he founded the Baroque orchestra Bach Concentus, which has already appeared in Belgium, Italy and Spain. Its first (double) CD, devoted to the Suites of Johann Bernard Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann, came out in 2008 (ACC 24198).
Apart from his work as a harpsichordist and conductor, Ewald Demeyere is active in the field of musical theory. He is principally interested in the influence of the theories from the Baroque era on instrumental practice, and in particular on the interpretation of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
He has published two articles in the Dutch Journal of Music Theory (Amsterdam University Press): Ebenezer Prout: Bach as a model for the teaching of fugue (2003) and The Art of Fugue: exemplary or experimental? (2005).
In 2007 he wrote an article The partimento fugue: exercise or composition? for the book Les Écritures Musicales (Éditions Mardaga, 2007), and On BWV 1080/8: Between Theory and Practice (Eighteenth-Century Music, 2007).
In 2009 he obtained a Ph.D. at the University of Antwerp and the Artesis Hogeschool Antwerpen (Associatiefaculteit Kunsten), when he presented his thesis A Contextual, Text-Critical Analysis of Johann Sebastian Bach's Art of Fugue – Reflections on Performance Practice and Text-Critical Analysis, and the interaction between them.
© EWALD DEMEYERE.