Percussion

Gert François studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Ghent, where he obtained his Master’s Degree in Percussion and Chamber music. He continued studying in search for perfection with Ruud Wiener (Vibes) and Adam Dramé ( African percussion). Since 1987 he is head of the percussion department at our Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussels. Regularly he is invited as a guest teacher around the world. As performer he is principal timpani and section leader at Brussels Philharmonic with whom he obtained an Oscar for best film music with “the Artist” and a Golden globe for the music of “The Aviator”. As a soloist he created “ Raga I” of Wim Henderickx in the version of percussion solo and 2 piano’s with the piano duo Heidi Henderickx/Levente Kende. Later he recorded the orchestral version of ”Raga I” with “De Filharmonie” with the conductor G. Llewellyn.

During” Big Bang” percussion concerts he had the pleasure to perform with percussion masters such as Trilok Gurtu / Doudou N’Diaye Rose / Mamady Keita / Han Bennink / Madjid Khaladj among others. In 2009 he performed “liever misschien dan alleszins” of Frans Geysen for percussion ensemble and timpani conducted by Bart Bouckaert. In 2011 he was in the world première of “Groove” the percussion concerto of Wim Henderickx with Brussels Philharmonic and G. Guerrero. A few years later he was the leading percussion soloist with the Belgian and Chinees première of the "Water Passion after St. Matthew" from Tan Dun. The same year he created Raga I for Windband and a percussion solo from Wim Henderickx with Koninklijke Muziekkapel van de Gidsen under the baton of Yves Segers.

After his percussion studies, Bart followed a marimba specialisation with Robert van sice; and for jazz he received information from Peter Hertmans and Diederik Wissels.

A 30 year experience inside and outside Belgium contains a lot of different styles: symphonic, opera, ancient music, contemporary music, pop, variété and jazz.

Bart shared the scene with Mike Mainieri, Trilok Gurtu, Robert Martin (ex-Frank Zappa) beside Belgian top players like jan Michiels, Inge Spinette, Levente Kende, Gert François, Dreamtime, Brussels Jazz Orchestra... on North Sea Jazz festival, Brosella...

Bart is teacher marimba and vibraphone (classic and jazz) at Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel. For master classes and as a member of the jury, Bart was invited in Netherlands, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Portugal, South-Corea and Japan.

His compositions for vibraphone and marimba are distributed worldwide by leading publishers like: Hal Leonard, Henri Lemoine. Bart was laureate of the Sabam Contest for Composition for Jazz-themes 2000 and 2002. His own CD’s: ‘Thank You’ (quintet), ‘Profiles’ (duo) and ‘Life Path’ (solo). As sideman Bart can be heard on more then 70 Cd’s and made concert tours through Europa, U.S.A., South-Korea and Japan.