Roel Dieltiens (born 1956) is a Belgian

cellist The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

. Dieltiens plays both

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

and modern cello. Dieltiens grew up in a musical family and initially studied

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

. At the age of fifteen, just as he was about to give up music, his elder brother encouraged him to try the cello. He immediately fell in love with the instrument. Three years later he won First Prize at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, Belgium.

Studies and degrees

Dieltiens continued his studies at the Chapelle musicale Reine Élisabeth in

Waterloo Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, 1815 battle where Napoleon's French army was defeated by Anglo-allied and Prussian forces * Waterloo, Belgium Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Australia * Waterloo, New South Wale ...

, Belgium. He also studied with André Messens in Antwerp, Belgium, with

André Navarra André-Nicolas Navarra (13 October 1911 – 31 July 1988) was a French cellist and cello teacher who was born in Biarritz and died in Siena. Early life He was born into a musical family in Biarritz, his father being a bassist of Italian desce ...

Detmold Detmold () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of . It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947. Today it is the administrative center of ...

, Germany and with

Pierre Fournier Pierre Léon Marie Fournier (24 June 19068 January 1986) was a French cellist who was called the "aristocrat of cellists" on account of his elegant musicianship and majestic sound. Biography Pierre Fournier was born in Paris, the son of a F ...

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, Switzerland. He received a diploma from the Akademie für Solisten in

Wolfenbüttel Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel (district), Wolfenbüttel Distri ...

, Germany and a Diploma d'Onore from the Accademia Chigiana in

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

, Italy.

Interest in baroque, contemporary, and ethnic music

Dieltiens played with the violinist

André Gertler André Gertler (26 July 1907 – 23 July 1998) was a Hungarian classical violinist and teacher. Professor at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (1940–1977), Professor at the Cologne Academy of Music (1954–1957), Professor at the College of Mus ...

, the

clarinetist The clarinet is a single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches. The clarinet family is the largest woodw ...

Walter Boeykens Walter, Knight Boeykens (January 6, 1938 – April 23, 2013) was a Belgian conductor and a world-renowned clarinetist. Boeykens' impressive discography, including several critically acclaimed performances, are testimony to his status as one of t ...

and the

countertenor A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G3 to D5 or E5, although a sopranist (a ...

and conductor

René Jacobs René Jacobs (born 30 October 1946) is a Belgian musician. He came to fame as a countertenor, but later in his career he became known as a conductor of baroque and classical opera. Biography Countertenor Born in Ghent, Jacobs began his musi ...

. He became the latter's regular continuo cellist. Several contemporary composers, including Luc Van Hove and William Bolcom, have asked Dieltiens to give first performances of their works. He has also collaborated with Victor Legley and Jacqueline Fontyn. Dieltiens has performed and recorded as a member of the chamber music ensemble, Explorations. Dieltiens has also performed with the Hungarian ethnic music group Muzsikás.

Compositions for contemporary dance

Along with the choreographer Alain Platel of les ballets C de la B (formerly called Les Ballets Contemporains de la Belgique), Dieltiens created ''Iets (iets) op Bach.'' ''Iets op Bach'', which translates loosely as "A Little Something set to Bach", won a Time Out Live Award in London, England in 1998 and a Masque d'Or de la Production Etrangère (Golden Mask for a Foreign Production) award in 1999. Dieltiens continued his association with Les Ballets C de la B, playing a "fabulously strange and discordant accompaniment" to Les Ballets C de la B's ''Rien de Rien'' in 2001.

Awards

Other awards Dieltiens has won include a Caecilia Award in Belgium and a

Diapason d'Or The Diapason d'Or (French for "Golden Tuning Fork") is a recommendation of outstanding (mostly) classical music recordings given by reviewers of '' Diapason'' magazine in France, broadly equivalent to "Editor's Choice", "Disc of the Month" in the ...

in France.

Discography

Recordings include: * J.S. Bach: Complete Cello Suites * Vivaldi: Cello Sonatas, Cello Concertos * Tartini: Concertos * Italian Cello Music: Domenico Gabrielli, Benedetto Marcello, Giovanni Bononcini, Alessandro Scarlatti D, Willem de Fesch, Francesco Geminiani * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Flute Quartets * Bach, C.P.E. - Cello Concertos Wq 170, 171 & 172 -

Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century The Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century () is a Dutch early music orchestra. Frans Brüggen and Lucy van Dael co-founded the orchestra in 1981. Sieuwert Verster became financial manager in 1984. Although he did not have a formal title with the orc ...

Teaching and competitions

Dieltiens teaches at the Musikhochschule Hochschule für Musik und Theater in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, Switzerland. Dieltiens is frequently invited to serve as a jury member in competitions such as the

International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition The International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition () is a music competition in Leipzig, Germany, held by the Bach-Archiv Leipzig. It was founded in 1950 and was held every four years from 1964 to 1996 with five subjects and is now held every two ...

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels, and the Tchaikowski Competition in Moscow.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dieltiens, Roel Belgian cellists 1957 births Living people Belgian composers Belgian male composers Belgian male musicians