Ivan Meylemans opens the 2007/08 season with two concerts at the Palais de Beaux Arts in Brussels with the Flemish Radio Orchestra and then chairs the jury at the Aeolus-Bläserwettbewerb at the Tonhalle Düsseldorf. In October 2007 he conducts five concerts with the Royal Philharmonic Flanders and debuts with the Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam. In November he conducts the Flemish Radio Orchestra (Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem) once again, as well as numerous concerts with the Collegium Instrumentale Brugense where he is Chief Conductor as of 2007.

After his successful debut at the Rotterdam Philharmonic in December 2006, he was immediately re-invited for two further concert series in early 2009. Last season he also debuted with the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra, the Noord Nederlands Orkest and the Orkest van het Oosten. Debuts with the Residentie Orkest The Hague, the Zagreb Philharmonic and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg follow.

In 2004/05, Ivan Meylemans was Mariss Jansons’ assistant and cover at the Concertgebouw Orkest, which allowed him to experience many of the great international concert halls such as Vienna, Salzburg, Berlin, Lucerne, London, Madrid, and Tokyo. He also assisted Herbert Blomstedt and Markus Stenz. He began studying conducting in 1996 at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague under Ed Spanjaard and Jac van Steen. He graduated in 2000 summa cum laude and successfully participated in numerous festivals (World Music Competition, Concours International de Jeunes Chefs d’Orchestre and International Concours Radio France). In September 2002 he won the International Vakhtang Jordania Competition, only two weeks later he was a finalist and third prize winner of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London, where he conducted Bartok’s Der wunderbare Mandarin with the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2005, Ivan Meylemans won the Prix de Salon in Amsterdam.

Ivan Meylemans was born in Belgium 1971, studied trombone, percussion and piano at the Lemmens Institute of Leuven as well as the Ghent Conservatory. He won numerous competitions and soon became first trombonist at the former BRTN Philharmonic Orchestra, today’s Flemish Radio Orchestra. From 1994 on he was solo trombonist of the Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam.

2007/08