BIO
Olmo Cornelis
Ghent, June 14th 1977; musicologist, composer.

Olmo Cornelis studied musicology at Ghent University with Herman Sabbe and Marc Leman (IPEM), where he graduated in 2000 writing a dissertation on the works of the Belgian composer André Laporte and following an internship at the Rode Pomp in Ghent.
Next he combined his studies Composition at the University College Ghent (Conservatorium Gent) with Lucien Posman, with his work as musicologist at Ghent University (Dep. Musicology, IPEM). He was researcher within the DEKKMMA project (http://music.africamuseum.be), a project in cooperation with the RMCA (Royal Museum of Central Africa) located at Tervuren, that obtained by digitalisation of the entire music archive a durable conservation and enhanced accessibility of the sound archive.
The project for finalizing his studies composition, under supervision of Bart Maris, were a reflective and practical sound research of how the African music can be integrated within modern Western music, with inclusion of the typical characteristics of the African audio and respect for the cultural conceptual framework of both music cultures.
In 2008 OC started a PhD at the University College Ghent, researching the annotation of ethnic music, detached from traditional Western musical concepts which are being used in ethnomusicology out of necessity. More objective descriptions of the sound are being acquired by computer analysis of the sound on its signal level by MIR techniques. From these alternative method of annotation ethnic musical parameters such as tempo, pitch, timbre, better description of specific details and characteristics of ethnic music can be provided, and the renewed perspective can serve as a new musical compositional idiom allowing ethnic influences on Western music in the greatest respect of both cultures.
At the Music Academy of Ghent and Gentbrugge, OC took courses double bass with Rigo Messens and Frank Coppieters and at the University College Ghent with Ludo Joly. He performed in several (music-)theater productions of Luc Van Autreve, a.o. De Ontginning, De BOM and Theater Krakeel. OC completed his aggregate at the Ghent University and joined ComAV in 2006.

As composer OC can be positioned within in a mild sound, in which constantly a certain melancholy is hidden behind intended compositional principles and -structures, balancing between systematics and aesthetics, an environment of permanent longing for lyrical lines and the need of rigid organisation, as appears in works such as Mourning Calls (double bass), Sore Sirens’ Song (saxophone), Demeter (flute, trumpet, saxophone, piano), Parfroise (clarinet, saxophone, piano), Foca (string trio), Karmozijn (choir), Gehemelste (brass band), Lager Gelegen (chamber ensemble)…