Paul Craenen BE

Paul Craenen is a composer, teacher, researcher and currently director of Musica, Impulse Centre for Music. As a composer and teacher of music, he links a classical training to work with the newest instruments and techniques. In his role as a researcher and director, he attempts to bridge the gap between existing music practice, scientific findings and the wider cultural context in which musical activity can unfurl. He earned his master’s degree in piano and chamber music from the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven, Belgium. Since then he has taught piano and experimental music at various music schools. He has designed several pioneering educational projects involving new music and the use of new media in music education.

He has been a composer and sound artist since the late 1990s. Several of his compositions have been performed in Belgium and abroad at a range of new music festivals. Conceptuality, the use of electronics and choreographic and audiovisual elements are characteristic elements in his work. Another recurring theme is his attention to corporeal presence in music performance. He began postgraduate research into this subject at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent, later pursuing it through docARTES, a doctoral programme for practice-oriented research in the arts. He has been a member of various research groups and was a guest lecturer on intermediality at Amsterdam Conservatory for several years. On 29 March 2011 he received his doctorate from Leiden University with a musical portfolio and a thesis on ‘composed performers’. A translation has been published by Leuven University Press (2014) under the title “Composing under the Skin. The music-making body at the composer’s desk”.

In 2012, he became artistic director of Musica, a major Flemish art organisation for art education, development and participation.