Wim Henderickx

Wim Henderickx (; 17 March 196218 December 2022) was a Belgian composer of contemporary classical music. He was composer in residence at Muziektheater Transparant and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, writing operas and other stage works. His music was influenced by oriental music and philosophy. He taught composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

Life and career Henderickx was born in Lier and began his music career as a jazz and rock drummer. In the 1990s he also attended the Darmstädter Ferienkurse.

Henderickx was a professor of analysis, harmony and counterpoint at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp from 1986 to 1995. He taught composition, harmony and counterpoint at the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven from 1989 to 2002. From 1995, he was professor of composition and analysis in Antwerp, and from 2002, also professor of composition at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

Music and style Henderickx composed operas, orchestral and choral works, works for wind bands, and chamber music. He used electronics in his works. and Dawn (1992) for mezzo-soprano, female chorus and instrumental ensemble.

His opera (2000) was commissioned by Muziektheater Transparant and toured in Belgium and the Netherlands.

His opera for young people, Achilleus, was produced in 2003 by the Flemish Opera. It was translated into Danish and staged in Copenhagen in 2006. The 2006 Olek schoot een beer was based on Bart Moeyaert's adaptation of the Firebird story.

Henderickx wrote Canzone for voice and piano for the semi-finals of the 2008 Queen Elisabeth Music Competition.

Medea for music theatre toured Belgium and the Netherlands in 2011–2013 with HERMESensemble and four actors of the Dutch Veenfabriek and Wim Henderickx as conductor.

His Symphony No. 1 "At the Edge of the World" was premiered by the National Orchestra of Belgium (NOB) in Luxemburg in 2012 with as conductor, and was performed with various orchestras in Brussels, Antwerp, Halle, and Magdeburg.

Within the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) World Music Days 2012 in Antwerp and November Music in den Bosch, he conducted the premiere of Atlantic Wall with HERMESensemble, a work for mezzo-soprano, instrumental ensemble, video, and electronics.

In 2014 he composed Antifoon (A resonating bridge) for 500 musicians. He conducted the open air spectacle on a bridge between Hasselt and Genk. In May 2015, his large choral work Visioni ed Estasi premiered with 200 singers, both professional and amateurs, at the St. Rumbold's Cathedral, during the Flanders Festival in Mechelen with James Wood as the general conductor. In April 2017 the music theatre production Revelations premiered at the Opera21 Festival in Antwerp with Muziektheater Transparant, Cappella Amsterdam, and the HERMESensemble.

His works are published by Norsk Musikforlag in Oslo, Norway. Tejas and Other Orchestral Works, performed by deFilharmonie and conducted by Martyn Brabbins At the Edge of the World, with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Brabbins and Edo de Waart.

Awards Henderickx received the Jeugd-en Muziekprijs Vlaanderen, the International Composition Prize for Contemporary Music in Quebec, Canada, and the triennial E. Baie I prize for a talented Flemish artist in 1999 from the province of Antwerp. He became the Arts Laureate of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium in 2002. In 2006 the Minister of Culture nominated him for the Flanders Culture Prize. He received the Lifetime Achievement Culture Prize in Lier in 2011. He was appointed a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium (KVAB) for Science and the Arts in 2015.