Jan Michiels - French Sonatas for Cello & Piano (2021)

Viviane Spanoghe has long been an established figure in Belgian musical life; her exceptional services to contemporary Belgian music were recognised when she was awarded the Fugatrofee Prize of the Union of Belgian Composers for her life’s work to date in 2020. She has premiered works by Dirk Brossé, Elias Gistelinck, Franklin and Jean Gyselynck, Marc Matthys, Peter Swinnen, Jan Van Landeghem and Annelies Van Parijs that were often composed especially for her or dedicated to her, and many of which she has made part of the concert repertoire. Her discography is as extensive as it is varied, with first recordings of an arrangement of Beethoven’s String Trio op. 3 (published in his lifetime as a duo for piano and cello as op. 64) and the Nocturne & Saltarello by George Enescu, as well as many first recordings of works by contemporary Belgian composers, Armenian composers unknown abroad, and the Maltese composer Charles Camilleri. Viviane Spanoghe has devoted herself intensively to teaching for four decades, 30 years of which she has spent at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels as professor of violoncello and chamber music. She also appears regularly on Belgian radio (Klara and Musique 3) and television.