Mr. Michel Stockhem: Director Conservatoire royal de Mons
Born in Brussels, Michel Stockhem (°1964) is a laureate of both University (Musicology) and Royal Conservatoire of his native city. He was teacher of History of Music in that latter institution from 1992 to 2012. He is laureate of several foundations and has been laureate of the University Concours of the French Community of Belgium in 1987. He is since 2012 general director and director of Music department of ARTS² (Mons, Belgium), a higher school for the Arts grouping Music, Theatre and Visuals Arts, born from the merging of two former State higher schools: the Higher School for Visual Arts (ESAPV) and the Royal Conservatoire of Mons (Music and Theatre). He gave life to this prestigious State school located in two historical buildings in Mons, which has increased its population by 60% since then and is nowadays one of the most important in French speaking Belgium. M. Stockhem is member of the board of the Agency for Quality Insurance in Higher Education (AEQES) and vice-chairman of the Pôle hainuyer, gathering all universities and higher education institutions in the region Hainaut (Belgium).
His published writings comprise a.o. a broad study (Eugène Ysaÿe et la musique de chambre, Mardaga) and articles about the famous violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, another illustrated book on the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel (Duculot/Lannoo, French, Dutch and English versions) as well as several articles in collective books, international periodicals and conference acts. He currently contributes monthly to the leading French monthly musical magazine Diapason.
Michel Stockhem has been production manager of the Royal Liege Philharmonic Orchestra from 1996 to 1999. Afterwards he has been very active as head of CD production companies, being also the artistic producer of more than 200 recordings. Artistic director of the label Cypres (1999-2004), he then founded the Outhere group, nowadays one of the leading independent European production groups in classical music, hosting a.o. his own Fuga Libera label. He left the group in 2012. He has been also responsible for broadcasted programmes on the 3rd Programme of the Belgian Public Radio (RTBF/Musiq3), with which he is still regularly collaborating, was long time freelance collaborator of the Queen Elisabeth Competition and has been screenplay writer for two documentary films (on Frank Peter Zimmermann, violinist, and on the story of the Queen Elisabeth Competition). He has given lectures in most of the EU countries, in Japan, China, Russia, Ukraine aso.
Michel Stockhem is artistic director and chairman of the jury of the André Dumortier International Piano Competition (CIAD, Leuze Belgium) and has been member of juries in other international competitions. He was also vice-chairman of the Cercle Royal Gaulois, Artistique et Littéraire (Brussels, founded 1847), of which he is member since 1996.