Having played over 70 chamber music and solo concerts in the previous season, Alice Van Leuven is a sought after violinist currently based in Brussels. The highlights of the season included the release in Flagey of the Alfama Quartet’s newest album “so Far so Close”, a solo role in the new production “Kruistocht” of the Flemish Opera and the Yellow Barn festival in Vermont. In 2021, she was selected as one of the “Twintigers” (promising Twentysomethings) from radio Klara, the Flemish radio for classical music.
The Alfama Quartet appointed Alice as their new first violinist in September 2021. The quartet is active since 2005 and critically acclaimed in Belgium and abroad. Their new album “so Far so Close” that was released by the label Cypres in February 2023 is devoted to the music of Mendelssohn and Schumann but also includes a brand new quartet from the Belgian composer Patrick Leterme. Alice is also a founding member of Trio Aries that won the chamber music competition Supernova Classics in February 2020. The piano trio performed at the Klara Festival in Bozar and had the honor to play the 2021 Spring Concert of the Royal Palace of Brussels. Their debut album “Awakening”, recorded in deSingel (Antwerp), has been released in November 2021 and very well received by the national and international press. Alice’s recordings have been broadcasted on RbbKultur, France Musique, Klara and Musiq3 and she has made appearances on various Belgian television channels.
Despite her young age, Alice appeared already on several renowned international chamber music festivals such as Yellow Barn, Festival Resonances, Klara Festival, Festival van Vlaanderen, Midi-Minimes, Festival de musique de Dinard, Festival de musique de l’orangerie de Sceaux, Festival en Poitou, Festival Racinotes etc. She has performed alongside Aleksandar Madžar, Gilbert Kalish, Michael Kannen, Gregor Sigl, Lilli Maijalla, Timothy Ridout, Sini Simonen, Bogdan Božović, Amy Norrington, Justus Grimm, Martijn Vinck and Toon Fred.
Composer Frederik Neyrinck dedicated his piece « Echo de Cleves » for solo violin to Alice, which she premiered in the Henry Leboeuf hall in Bozar (Brussels) in June 2020. This led to a second collaboration for Frederik’s opera “Kruistocht” in which Alice played a solo part on the stage of “Opera Ballet Vlaanderen”. As a soloist, Alice performed with the orchestra of the Brussels Conservatory (KCB), Sinfonietta and l’Orchestre de Chambre de la Néthen. She is laureate of different competitions like Belfius Classics where she received a first prize both in the violin category as in the chamber music category. She was finalist of the Young Belgian Talent competition, edition 2015.
Alice graduated from the Universität der Künste in Berlin where she studied in the violin class of Mark Gothoni and in the chamber music class of the Artemis Quartet. Before that she studied at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel with Philippe Graffin. She feels particularly grateful to the teachers Alain Meulemans and Erik Sluys who accompanied her from her first steps with the violin to the conservatory. Throughout her studies, Alice also worked with many renowned teachers during masterclasses and festivals: Les Rencontres Musicales Internationales d’Enghien with Philippe Graffin, Priya Mitchell, Amy Norrington, David Waterman and Miriam Fried, IMS Prussia Cove (England) with Andras Keller, Bartok Seminar in Szombathely (Hungary) with Barnabas Kelemen, Savonlinna Music Academy (Finland) with Mark Gothoni, the Festival Resonances with Antje Weithaas and Yellow Barn with Donald Weilerstein and members of the Doric String Quartet.
Alice enjoyed much touring with different Belgian and German small-sized orchestras or ensembles like Hofkapelle Weimar South America tour in 2018, Kammeracademie Potsdam on tour in Germany, concerts (among others) at the Rheingau Musikfestival and in the Berliner Philharmonie, Le Concert Olympique with concerts in the Berliner Philarmonie and the Elbphilarmonie as well as the Orchester im Treppenhaus in Hannover. She was invited for the Pacific Music Festival (edition 2019) that was founded by Leonard Bernstein and that takes place every year in Japan with artistic director Valery Gergiev.
Since september 2021, Alice is teaching the violin at the Kunsthumaniora Brussel.
