Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden was born in Brussels. He begins to play the piano very young and enters the royal academy of music of his birthplace at 12. He works under the direction of Eduardo Del Pueyo until the end of his studies to the Queen Elisabeth musical chapel. Prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth’s contest at 16, he begins then a soloist career that will carry him on all the continents.

Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden played with many symphony orchestras among which: the symphony orchestra of Saint-Pétersbourg, the royal philharmonic of London, the residentie orkest of La Haye and several Belgian orchestras, like the chamber orchestras I Fiamminghi and Franz Liszt (Budapest). Thus he collaborated with prestigious conductors such as Paul Kletzky, Rudolph Barshaï or Yuri Temirkanov.

Press and public are unanimous: “(the work) … finds, under the colorful fingers of the pianist, the finest variations that fascinate with the richness of his detail. (…) real style lesson from the master and virtuoso Vanden Eynden.” (1)

Teacher

Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden is currently a professor at the Brussels royal conservatoire, the Queen Elisabeth musical Chapel, and is the artistic director of the European piano center Eduardo Del Pueyo.

He also practises the chamber music with partners such as Augustin Dumay, Silvia Marcovici, Michaela Martin, Miriam Fried, Gerard Caussé, Frans Helmerson, José Van Dam, Walter Boeykens, the Enesco quartet, the Melos quartet, the Ysaye quartet…

His repertoire includes in particular almost all of the great concertos, many works of chamber music and the integral piano work of Maurice Ravel.

His discography is very diverse: Grieg and Arthur De Greef concertos (first world recording), Lekeu Sonata for violin and piano (with late the Philippe Hirshorn) and the Brahms sonatas and trio for clarinet with Walter Boeykens (great price of the Caecilia disc).

He is regularly called as jury member to the Queen Elisabeth contest, as other international contests and took part in festivals such as Korsholm (Finland), Umea (Sweden), Prades and Chaise-Dieu (France) and especially Stavelot (Belgium) of which he is artistic consultant since 1987.