Press release - After five beautiful years at Ghent Flanders Festival, the talented Jelle Dierickx makes an international career move. The 2012 edition will be coordinated by the promising young musicologist Isaline Claeys. She studied at Ghent University and wrote a thesis about mysticism and ecstasy in music. After her academic studies, she took a one-year sabbatical to discover the music scene in the northern part of Brazil. Later, she was asked by a record label to catalogue their music archive, and because this assignment could be performed remotely, she decided to work out of New Zealand. At Flanders Festival Brussels’ request, she set up “MusMA: Music Masters on Air”, a platform for contemporary music with a network of 10 European festivals and 10 radio stations. In addition, she took up singing en joined several choirs and ensembles. With the appointment of Isaline, Ghent Flanders Festival’s and its manager Serge Platel again opt for a young artistic coordinator. Isaline Claeys: “To me, music is all about ‘rapture’: it’s a navigational tool that guides me through the most diverse emotions, states of mind and the history of knowledge or science. While some only need pure musical enjoyment to get carried away, others require extra-musical elements to reach that state. Our festival concept allows us to cater to both factions: we are able to supply the story, the playful elements and celebratory aspects to get everybody on board our music vessel. And though this may look like a daunting task, I find it fascinating.” Jelle Dierickx has been appointed artistic coordinator of “Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci” (Germany) and will take up his post in January 2012. He will stay on as artistic coordinator of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival, a post he took up in early 2011. “With mottos like ‘La Gioia’, ‘Beyond Dreams’ and ‘Stars’, the past five Festival editions have provided 1001 nights of music, thanks chiefly to hundreds of artists and thousands of festivalgoers. Year after year, the superb festival crew aptly translated our starting point into a musical bonfire. The idiosyncrasy and sensual undertone of Ghent Flanders Festival have earned us substantial international recognition. I am glad and honoured to have been allowed to contribute one chapter to Ghent Flanders Festival’s history.” Jelle Dierickx studied musicology at Ghent University and took his PhD in 2006 with a thesis on the links between post-war music and poetry. In 2000, he set up KriKri, a not-for-profit organisation that specialises in contemporary poetry and music. During the past five years, Jelle Dierickx effortlessly managed to present top-notch artists and ensembles in Ghent, including John Eliot Gardiner, Yo-Yo Ma, Barbara Hendricks, Measha Brueggergosman, Kiri Te Kanawa and Anne Sofie von Otter. In addition, he added several world creations to Ghent Flanders Festival’s programme and contributed to a number of special projects, including the musical cycling tour “Avanti!”, “KidsOdeGand”, “uFo!” and the Venetian ball for “OdeGand”.