Annelies Focquaert (b. 1977) received her degree in organ from the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp in 2001. After becoming a laureate of the Ghent Orpheus Institute in 2006 with a research project on the Belgian organist Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, she successfully defended her Doctorate of Arts on the same composer in October 2014 (Associate Faculty University of Antwerp – AP Hogeschool).
After an assignment as project coordinator for Orgel in Vlaanderen, she was a researcher at the Study Center for Flemish Music in Antwerp from 2005 to 2016. She currently teaches organ, harpsichord and practical harmony at the academies of Antwerp (MaGo) and Hemiksem-Niel-Schelle-Aartselaar. Since 2015, she has been the titular organist at Antwerp’s St. George’s Church.
Besides giving organ concerts in Belgium, France, Spain and Switzerland, she has also accompanied choirs and ensembles such as the Flemish Radio Choir and Brussels Symphony Orchestra, Hermes Ensemble, Oxalys and Het Collectief.
In August 2019, she participated in the Orgelpark Amsterdam’s Summer Course, with master classes by Franz Danksagmüller, Jacob Lekkerkerker, Zuzana Ferjencikova and Hans-Ola Eriksson.
In 2018 and 2019 she played the premieres of Luc De Winter’s organ works Ten Millennium Future, El Castillo interior (organ) and Cold Mountain (soprano and organ); in 2023 she premiered the Phoenix Diptych (organ) and the song cycle Mystère.