Artists

Aarschots Jeugdkoor

AARSCHOTS JEUGDKOOR  (1958 – 1996)

under the direction of  Reverend F. Breugelmans (1933 – 2018)

 

…The Aarschots Jeugdkoor grew out of the boys’ choir of the Sint-Jozefscollege in Aarschot.  In 1958, Reverend Frans Breugelmans (1933-2018), then a young priest and teacher, took over the leadership of this choir.  At first the choir sang, following the old church tradition, exclusively religious music, intended to enhance the liturgical celebrations, both in the college chapel and in the “Grote Kerk”, the deanery church Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk in Aarschot.

From 1964 the choir began to take part in choir competitions, and secular music also appeared on the music stands.  Since 1972 girls were recruited, and the choir became independent under the name “Aarschots Jeugdkoor”.  Two rehearsals were held every week, and new voices always had to be trained, because every year the oldest, the best voices left.  These were the boys whose voices broke, and the girls who left secondary school.  But fortunately, success was not long in coming for such sustained effort.

Over the years the AJK took part ten times in the European Music Festival for Youth in Neerpelt, each time winning a first prize (minimum 80%), twice “cum laude” (90%) and twice “summa cum laude” (98%).  In 1983, 1985 and 1992 the choir was a laureate of the Nausicaä choir festival in Brussels.

The Aarschots Jeugdkoor also became a laureate on numerous foreign stages: 1980 “Les rencontres Internationales de Chant choral” in Tours (France), 1991 “5me Concours International de choeurs d’enfants” in Nantes (France), and 1991 the International Choir Festival “Professor Georgi Dimitrov” in Varna (Bulgaria).

On 16 December 1988 the Aarschots Jeugdkoor was the guest, for a unique and highly appreciated Christmas concert, of the Belgian royal couple Baudouin & Fabiola at the castle in Laeken.  After the performance the choir members were invited by the queen to a lavish coffee table.

The Aarschots Jeugdkoor of course gladly accepted such high and honourable invitations, but these boys and girls were also clearly socially motivated.  Every year, on the Saturday and Sunday before Christmas, they gave an a cappella concert of Christmas carols on the Grote Markt in Aarschot, the proceeds of which went to Poverello, a home for the homeless in the Marollen district of Brussels.

Besides all this music and social concern, the choir director and the board believed that nature was also an important component in the development of the character and talents of the young singers.  That is why every two years they went on a music camp in Tyrol, high up in the Lech Valley.  In that mighty setting of unspoilt nature reaching up to the clouds, the beauty of their cultural education and their comradeship came into their own even better.  That holiday work there was a true highlight for everyone, choir members and leadership alike.  …

 

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