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WÖR

With their finely textured arrangements WÖR injects new energy into 18th-century melodies from the Flanders region of Belgium. Their music shines an inventive spotlight, with a modern twist, on the melodies in these manuscripts.

WÖR released 3 albums ('Back to the 1780's' (2015), 'Sssht' (2017), and 'About Towers' (2021) and toured in Europe, Australia, Canada & the US . In August 2018 they won the German award 'Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik' with their last album 'Sssht'.

Tech Rider

"Presenters seek talented, professional, artistic and original artists that can both entertain and connect with their audience. WÖR is a stellar group of five who interpret ancient Carillian folk music melodies found in the bell towers of Belgium and bring these melodies alive and into the contemporary folk music world. What a great show and so appreciated by our audience!"

Mission Valley Live, Polson, Montana

Oh my goodness!  Those guys were AMAZING! My patrons were so thrilled with the performance and they want me to bring them back.  The band was also so chill and awesome to work with professionally.  

Kristin Underhill, Managing Director, Crystal Theatre

 

"Irresistible energy and skill..."  Songlines

"A fresh yet aged kaleidoscopic texture"  Transglobal World Music Chart

“An extraordinarily innovative concept album”  Music Frames

“Expressive vitality of a Baroque neo-folk which deserves attention.”  Blogfolk

 

“WÖR, a massive hit with audiences at the Shetland Folk Festival 2016. Not only did they deliver a very powerful sound, they engaged really well with all ages in the audience who reacted with lots of smiles and appreciation. A fabulous edition to our 2016 lineup."  Mhari Pottinger - Programmer, Shetland Folk Festival
 

"WÖR's album is brilliant. It's very exciting to hear a young band reinterpreting old manuscripts in a refreshing and new way."  Sam Sweeney - BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician Of The Year 2015

"The music is classic, they call it folk, the result is rock'n'roll."   Marc Vandemoortele (VRT - Radio 1 & Klara)

"The remarkable thing about WÖR is the dynamic way the quintet breath new life into these striking melodies."  Songlines Magazine (UK)

Videos

2022 Promo Video

Photos

Click photo to download

Bios

Back to the 1780's! If it sounded good back then, why not today? WÖR (pronounced ‘were’) is a band of five musicians whose curiosity, passion and talent has led to a niche goldmine of melodies in stunning contemporary arrangements. 

 

With their finely textured arrangements WÖR injects new energy into 18th-century melodies from the Flanders region of Belgium. Their music shines an inventive spotlight, with a modern twist, on the melodies in these manuscripts.

 

WOR released 3 albums ('Back to the 1780's' (2015), 'Sssht' (2017) and 'About Towers' (2021) and toured in Europe, Australia, Canada & the US (including the National Folk Festival, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Concertgebouw Brugge, Sunfest, Shetland folk festival..). In August 2018 they won the German award 'Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik' with their album 'Sssht'. In 2021 they were nominated for 'Best live band' at the Flemish Folk Awards' and their album ‘About Towers’ made it into the ‘World Music Charts Europe’.

 

WÖR's new album "About Towers" is available now. In typical WÖR fashion, this album is built around Belgian manuscripts but this time we've found our favorites from the vast carillon repertoire.

 

What is Carillon music, you say? Here in the Low Countries around the late Middle Ages, the carillon (a set of tuned bronze bells suspended in a large tower) used to function like a modern-day radio station playing the hits of the day to everyone in the surrounding area. We breathe new life and energy into these carillon manuscripts. Unusual music in a hip and catchy costume. Always with due respect for tradition, but brimming with artistic originality.  Just like the music of the carillonneurs then, our album is a playlist for you, 'the timeless' hits from our region. 

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Fabio Di Meo

baritone saxophone

Born in Brussels Belgium, Fabio started playing the saxophone at the age of 8 and engaged in lots of music activities such as wind bands, saxophone choir, pop bands, and bigbands. At the age of 18 he started his music studies at the the LUCA School of Art and obtained a master degree in music with specialty of saxophone. He started teaching at the SLAC in Leuven and was involved in many music productions, such as the Belgian National Saxophone choir. After two years of teaching, he went into music production. He started in 2016 as a production officer for the Brussels Jazz Orchestra and is now currently working for Bozar, the Centre for fine Arts Brussels.

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Jeroen Goegebuer

fiddle

Jeroen Goegebuer started playing the violin at the age of  6. After 9 years of violin lessons at the music school in Bornem, Jeroen started at the the LUCA School of Arts, campus Lemmens for the last 2 years of art high school. He received a bachelors degree of jazz violin with Jean-Pierre Catoul at the Conservatory of Ghent. He then studied jazz violin with Michael Gustorff at the Artez Hogeschool in Arnhem (NL). At the same time he taught folk violin at the music school of Bornem. After his studies at conservatories of Gent & Arnhem he toured the world with bands in several genres from pop, rock, and world music. 

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Pieterjan Van Kerckhoven

bagpipes - baroque musette - saxophone

Pieterjan is an active international musician and educator. He can be seen and heard on the international scene with his bands WÖR and EmBRUN and his baroque ensemble Bourdon Collectif (Drone collective).  As a freelance musician, he appears on recordings of the early music ensembles “Les Agrémens” (Namur, Belgium) and “Les Menus Plaisirs du Roy” (Brussels, Belgium). Pieterjan holds a master’s and postmaster’s degree in baroque musette and a master’s degree in chamber music from the LUCA School of Arts, campus Lemmens where he studied with Dr. Jean-Pierre Van Hees. Pieterjan is currently the instructor of Bagpipes & Musette at LUCA School of Arts, Campus Lemmens in Leuven, Belgium.

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Jonas Scheys

guitar

Jonas studied guitar and luth at the conservatory of Ghent (School of Arts). He holds a master’s degree in guitar and is currently the guitar instructor at the Academy for music in Geraardsbergen. He has been very active in the Belgian roots music scene playing bass, guitar and luth. He also performs in various groups and ensembles in other musical genres such as tango, fusion, baroque and renaissance music. All this experience makes him a very versatile musician. "For me, its the interesting that WÖR combines the two musical genres I prefer the most: baroque music and folk. And I can play it on my first love: the guitar!"

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Bert Ruymbeek

accordian

Bert studied accordion at the Academy of Music, Word and Dance of  Sint-Niklaas at the age of 9. At the age of 15, he participated in various workshops and internships like the Ethno world music camps. His groovy energy and lyrical accordion playing is strongly influenced by Celtic en Nord-European traditional music. He toured with different ensembles and projects (Folklof, Griff, WÖR,..) in Europe, Australia, China, and Canada. Bert is an instructor in several accordion and roots music programs.

Programs

Back to the 1780's

WOR takes the audience on a timetravel back and forth now and Flanders 300 years ago. 

About Towers

Preferred to bring this program in the buildings where the original music once sounded: churches, bell towers, chapels, castles

FESTIVAL

A fast uptempo set

Repertoire

These people were the musicians of their town: violinists, bell tower musicians, dance masters... They played at all sorts of events, from official ceremonies to parties and informal occasions.

Petrus Josephus Van Belle, 1743, Viane
This collection of tunes by Van Belle was discovered in a church organ in Viane about thirty years ago.
 
Ioannes de Gruijtters, 1746, Antwerpen

De Gruijtters was the carillon player of Antwerp. In his manuscript 194 melodies and popular tunes from his time got noted down.
 
Fam. Di Martinelli, ca. 1750, Diest
This collection of four musicians comes from the family archive of Di Martinelli, a family of musicians and lawyers from the town of Diest
 
Jean-Baptiste-Robert d’Aubat de Saint-Flour, 1757, Gent
A dance master from Ghent. In 1757 his collection of "Honderd uytgelesen Contredansen" was published.
 
Pierre Trappeniers, ca. 1775, Brussel
A dance master who lived in Brussels between 1734 and 1794 and published three books with contradances. 

 

Franciscus De Prins, 1781, Leuven
Carillon player and organist at the Sint-Geertruikerk in Leuven.

P.J. Vanpelt, 1786, Tongeren/Maastricht
A collection of tunes well preserved in the beautiful Basilica of Tongeren, a city not far from the town Maastricht (NL) where the origin of this manuscript may be. 

 

Theodoor or Augustinus Everaerts,  1728, Antwerpen
The collection 'Beyaert' is the oldest collection to be found in Belgium with music for carillon. It contains mainly Christmas carols.

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