Bart Verstraeten (Sint-Niklaas, Belgium, 1981) started his music education at the Music Academy of Sint-Niklaas. In 2004 he obtained his Master’s Degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, where he took lessons in harmony, counterpoint and fugue with Peter Thomas. In 2007 he became Master in Composition as student of Luc Van Hove and Wim Henderickx. He graduated as Master of the Performing Arts (Piano) at the Royal Conservatoire of Ghent in 2014 under the auspices of Johan Duijck.

Currently he teaches courses in harmony, counterpoint, composition, solo piano and accompaniment at the municipal academies for Music and Drama in Deurne and Wilrijk (Antwerp). In 2005 he received the ‘Klara Continuo’ prize in the composition contest of the Flemish radio station Klara with his composition ‘Alla Zingarese’ and the Sabam prize for his composition ‘Trio for Flute, Viola and Piano’. In 2016 the Flemish radio station Klara selected his composition ‘Capriccio for Violin and Piano’ to feature on the CD ‘Fingerprints 2’. Later on the composition ‘Hide and Seek’ was selected for the follow-up Klara-release ‘Fingerprints 3’.

‘Valse mélancolique’ was written in 2018 after the idiom of the French piano music from the Belle époque. His compositions are performed by different soloists, ensembles and choirs.