Pascale Montauban (Belgium)
Opera agent, Owner of Ariën, Arts & Music Management (Belgium)
With The Mystic Lamb, the first name of the platform founded in 1987 to promote classically trained musicians next to visual artists, Pascale Montauban made her first steps in cultural management. Being trained as a singer, actress and visual artist herself, the platform became a fully-fledged management agency under her proper name in 1989. The agency broke through two years later when it acquired a satellite in Salzburg as a partner of the Salzburger Schloßkonzerte, a legendary institution that made a name for itself with its ‘international young talent stage’ next to multiple concerts series at Schloss Mirabell, Mozarteum and Salzburg Residenz, with members of the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras and many others.
Pascale co-founded the Brüssel-Salzburg-Festival which alternated between Brussels and Salzburg from 1991 to 1995 (i.e. until Austria joined the EU). Equally noteworthy was the Festival coproduced with the Stiftung Mozarteum Argentina in Brazil, to finish the Mozart Year 1991 in style.
Upon her return to Belgium in 2015 Pascale was offered a merger between her agency and the Concert Agency Gaston Ariën, managed at the time by her Lied coach baritone Albrecht Klora. Founded in 1928 by Gaston Ariën, the agency was the first to reinvite the Berliner Philharmoniker to Belgium and stood at the cradle of the renowned Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders, today Antwerp Symphony Orchestra.
In 2028 the Ariën Agency will celebrate its 100th Anniversary. Today’s activities include career coaching and worldwide promotion of Belgian and foreign artists with a focus on conductors, opera directors, classically trained opera and concert singers, next to various chamber music ensembles, solo instrumentalists and orchestras.
Since 2007 Pascale is a regular guest lecturer at the conservatoires of Ghent and Antwerp, where she gives audition training. Occasionally she enlarges this activity to opera studios.
At home she served as a jury member at the first edition of the International Competition for Opera Conductors by the Polycarpe Foundation & Royal Opera House of Wallonie (2017), next to the competitions of Verviers, Namur (CIALN) and Brussels (Triomphe de l’Art).
Abroad, repeatedly at the International Singing competitions of Pienza, Filignano (Mario Lanza), next to Pamplona and Cologne (MHKöln).
Pascale is the driving force behind Castellaria, the first multinational Children’s Opera Festival that will open Summer 2027 with the world première of Jungle Book- The Opera.
Marc Clémeur (Belgium/France)
Administrator of Génération Opéra (Paris, France)
Honorary General Manager of the Opéra National du Rhin (Strasbourg, France)
Independent Casting Consultant
Marc Clémeur studied theatre studies and musicology in Cologne, before going on to work as a stage direction assistant to Götz Friedrich in Amsterdam, Bayreuth, and Düsseldorf. He became a producer of classical music for Belgian radio and television in 1977. In 1984, he was appointed director of the Vlaams Filharmonisch Orkest ; and in 1989, director general of the Vlaamse Opera, which, under his management, built up an international reputation. In 2009, he became general director of the Opéra National du Rhin, where he oversaw an original project, with a particular focus on contemporary composers. He devoted a cycle to Janáèek, which was directed by Robert Carsen, and also staged rarely seen French works. Under his leadership, the Opéra Studio has trained a number of singers who today are invited on stages worldwide. After a long career in the musical world, Marc Clémeur is now frequently asked to be an artistic adviser to opera houses and competitions and is often invited to serve as a member of the jury of prestigious international competitions. He is the director of Génération Opéra in Paris, which notably organises the Voix Nouvelles competition, and artistic adviser to the Opera Pienza competition.
Daniel Ottevaere (Belgium/France)
Internationally acclaimed bass
Professor of voice at the Ecole Normal de Musique de Paris (France)
Professor of voice at the Conservatory of Valenciennes (France)
After studying singing, art lyric and melody in Brussels, Vienna and School of Paris Opera, Daniel made his debut at the Paris Opera in L’Orfeo Monteverdi (starring Antoine Vitez), and became a permanent guest on many French (Paris, Nantes, Marseille, Nancy, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Metz, Nancy, Avignon, etc…) and international scenes (Lisbon, Turin, Seoul, Buenos Aires, Flanders, Monte Carlo, etc…).
His roles are numerous in such operas as Salome, L’Heure espagnole, Rigoletto, Manon, Die Zauberflöte, Ariadne auf Naxos, La Belle Hélène, Dialogues des Carmélites, Le Petit Ramoneur, Pélléas et Mélisande, Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Vol de nuit, Thaïs, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Lucrezia Borgia, La Damnation de Faust, Boulevard Solitude ,Le Nozze de Figaro, La Fanciulla del West, Der Rosenkavalier, Traviata, Cenerentola, Khovanchtchina, Turandot, Macbeth, Le Roi Arthus, Faust, etc…
Willing to transmit, Daniel Ottevaere teaches singing to the Paris Normal School of Music, at the Music Chapel Queen Elisabeth in Brussels (alongside José Van Dam) as well at the Conservatoire de Valenciennes. Among his students currently on scene, let us quote in particular Gabrielle Philiponet, Yann Beuron, Jennifer Courcier, Sarah Defrise, Héloïse Poulet, Marc Labonette, Heloïse Koempgen-Bramy, Artavazd Sargsyan, Juliette Allen, Mariam Sarkisian, Nicolas Ziélinski, etc…
His masterclasses in France and Belgium attract important public and became Daniel’s mark of quality.
Daniel is an artistic director of Estivales lyriques de Wissant. Last years he took on the role of stage and artistic director for many opera productions: Faust, Nozze di Figaro, Cosi fan tutti, Offenbach sur Canapé, Cabaret Chauve-Souris, Bastien et Bastienne, etc…
In 2024 and 2025 Daniel sings Leporello in Don Giovanni and Sarastro in Zauberflöte.
Gabrielle Philiponet (France)
Internationally acclaimed soprano with leading opera houses and orchestras
Winner at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition
Closely associated with the French repertoire, Gabrielle debuted at the Opéra de Paris with Frasquita (Carmen, Bizet), a role she also interpreted for the Bayerische Staatsoper and Aix-en-Provence Festival. She appeared as Micaëla in Metz, Massy and Lille, and was Leïla (Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Bizet) at the Opéra de Lille and Opéra de Nice. She made her debut as the title role of Gounod’s Mireille at Opera de Metz and sings Marguerite (Faust, Gounod) at Opéra de Saint-Etienne, Limoges and Vichy. She sang Lalla-Roukh’s title role by F. David for the Wexford Festival Opera. She performed Antonia and Stella (Les Contes d’Hoffman, Offenbach) after Massenet’s Cendrillon for both La Monnaie in Bruxelles and Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, and L’Enfant et les sortilèges by Ravel with the Symphonic Orchestra of Montréal. She sang Plautine (Le Temple de la Gloire, Rameau) with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of San Francisco.
Gabrielle has wrked with conductors such as Kent Nagano, Pablo Heras-Casado, Lorenzo Viotti, Roberto Rizzi-Brignoli, Alain Altinoglu, Karel Mark Chichon, David Reiland, Andreas Spering, Hervé Niquet, Roland Böer, Laurent Campellone, Giuseppe Grazioli, Roberto Forés-Veses and Paul Goodwin.
She regularly appears in leading roles from the romantic operatic Italian repertoire: Magda (La Rondine), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Mimi (La Bohème), Musetta, Adina (L’Elisir d’amore, Donizetti), Corinna (Il viaggio a Reims, Rossini) etc…
Faithful to the verdian roles, she embodied her signature role of Violetta (La Traviata) in Paris, New Orleans, Massy, among other cities, Oscar (Ballo in Maschera) at Massy, Desdemona (Otello) in Saint-Etienne Opera and Alice Ford (Falstaff) at the Opera de Lille, Luxembourg and Caen.
As a member of the Opera Studio of the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Brussels, she was a prize winner at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition.
Aaron Wajnberg (Belgium)
Lieder pianist
Artistic director of Antwerp LiedFest (Belgium)
Professor of Lied at the Royal Antwerp Conservatoire (Belgium)
Belgian born pianist Aaron Wajnberg rapidly became one of the most sought after pianists of his generation, celebrated for his poetic sensibility, musical intelligence, and consummate artistry.In 2011, he made his Carnegie Hall debut and has performed ever since at major venues such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Teatro Municipal Rio de Janeiro, Veronica Hagman Hall Danbury (Connecticut), Palau de les Arts Valencia, Joseph Keilberth Saal Bamberg, the Bayerische Staatsoper München, the Dutch National Opera, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Clara Schumann Saal Frankfurt, Crystall Hall Rogaska Slatina, Mozarteum Salzburg, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Rudolfinum Praag, Teatro Communale Bologna, Teatro Verdi Milano, Auditorium du Nouveau Siècle Lille, Opéra de Lille, Ruse State Opera (Bulgaria), Baltasar Dias Municipal Theatre Funchal (Madeira), Kiev Philharmonic Hall, Flemish Opera, Queen Elisabeth Hall, DeSingel and AMUZ Festival van Vlaanderen (Antwerp), BOZAR, LaMonnaie & FLAGEY (Brussels). Next season’s engagements include appearances with, among others, Axelle Fanyo, Rolando Villazón, Sir Bryn Terfel, Roberto Alagna, Ian Bostridge, Christoph Prégardien, Kartal Karagedik, Tineke Van Ingelgem, Pumeza Matshikiza, Olga Peretyatko, Samantha Hankey, Jeanine De Bique, Sophie Karthäuser, Chen Reiss, Allison Cook & Charlotte Wajnberg. He has established himself as a chamber musician in high demand, played concerts with Michael Barenboim, Artiom Shishkov, Marc Sabbah, Sindy Mohamed, Sary Khalife, Annelien Van Wauwe, Julien Hervé, Roman Patocka, Maciej Pikulski, Matthew Barley and chamber music ensembles as the Quatuor Enesco and the Quatuor Danel among others. He was the accompanist for international masterclasses and recitals by great singers such as Ann Murray, James Newby (rising star series), Samuel Hasselhorn, Matthew Rose, Karen Vermeiren, Héloise Mas, Edith Wiens, Maxim Mikhailov, Shadi Torbey, Charlotte Wajnberg, Ferdinand von Bothmer, Thomas Allen, Sergei Leiferkus, Gary Jankowski, Danylo Matviienko, Yuriy Hadzetsky, Coline Dutilleul, Sooyeon Lee and he was an accompanist at the International Queen Elisabeth Competition for Voice in Brussels, 2018 & 2023. He studied at the Royal Conservatoires of Antwerp & Ghent with Levente Kende, Vitaly Samoshko, Leonid Margarius, Victor Makarov. As a Liedpianist, he specialised with Lucienne Van Deyck, Jozef De Beenhouwer, Helmut Deutsch & Roger Vignoles. In February 2023, he was invited by legendary soprano Renée Fleming to participate in Carnegie Hall’s SongStudio.Widely acclaimed for his interpretations of the music of our time, he gave world premiere performances of work by A. Besses, R. Groslot, A. Van Parys, as well as the Belgian premiere of songs by Iain Bell, together with R. Villazon at BOZAR in Brussels.While continuing his busy playing career, Wajnberg is deeply committed to working with and coaching younger singers and pianists.He gives frequent masterclasses and workshops in New York, Paris and Frankfurt and is a professor of Lied & assistant professor piano at the Royal Antwerp Conservatoire. Since 2019, Aaron Wajnberg has been the artistic director of Antwerp LiedFest.
Michiel Delanghe (Belgium)
Conductor
General Manager of the International Opera Academy in Ghent (Belgium)
Michiel Delanghe made his professional debut as conductor with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y Léon in 2014. This was followed by engagements with the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya and the Orchestre National de Lille. He was guest conductor at most major Belgian orchestras: Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Brussels Philharmonic and Casco Phil.
Michiel is passionate about the lyrical repertoire and all scenic, dramaturgical and production aspects of opera. It resulted in the collaboration with Guy Joosten for the youth production Zwanemans after Wagner’s Lohengrin. As an assistant conductor Delanghe worked with renowned conductors such as Alain Altinoglu, Eric Whitacre, Sir Marc Elder, Patrick Fournillier, Yannis Pouspourikas, Jef Smits, Koen Kessels and Alejo Pérez. As a conductor, he led the OBV orchestra for the productions Banket! (director: T. Goossens) and more recently Kruistocht (director: J. De Smet).
During the 2022-’23 season he made his long-awaited debut at Opera Vlaanderen where he led the house orchestra in the world creation CRUSADE by composer Frederik Neyrinck. In the 2023-’24 season, Michiel made his debut at opera De Munt/La Monnaie Brussels for the creation of the opera Ali (Grey Filastine). In addition, he toured with the production FAUST (deCompagnie, Theater Arsenaal/lAzarus and De Maan). During the quiet Covid-19 era, Michiel graduated as full-time Master of Business Administration at Vlerick Business School.