Or in short, the USO
Concerts canceled
In consultation with KU Leuven we have regrettably decided that our Spring Concerts cannot take place on April 2nd and 3rd, because of the measures against the spread of the virus COVID-19.
Tickets that are reserved (and possibly already payed via bank transfer) will be refunded.
If you have any questions, please feel free to send an e-mail to info@usoleuven.be or to send us a message on our Facebook or Instagram pages.
On the 30th of April, we teamed up with the Make-A-Wish foundation and the Queen Elisabeth concert hall to allow Aude to fulfill her lifelong dream of performing with a full symphonic orchestra. Unfortunately, due to the current developments around the COVID-19 virus, we have to postpone the concert to the 28th of April 2021.
The ticketing service is provided by the Queen Elisabeth concert hall. If you already bought your ticket they will contact you.
For over fifty years, the University Symphony Orchestra (USO) of the University of Leuven (KULeuven) has been a well-established name in Belgium. The musicians of the orchestra are students of the University of Leuven, who have a passion for music and come together every Wednesday evening to share this passion. They are conducted by Edmond Saveniers.
The season starts at the beginning of the academic year and ends around the Easter holidays. The first series of concerts take place in November, first during a concert tour abroad, then in our home town Leuven. The second series of concerts take place in spring, both in Leuven and elsewhere in Belgium. We have had the honour to play in the Kursaal in Oostende, the Concertgebouw in Brugge, and many other places.
As the USO is a group of students, it is no surprise that there are also several other activities next to the weakly rehearsals, which create a fun and student-like group atmosphere.
Edmond Saveniers (Wijnegem/Antwerp, 1948) is awarded with a Master’s degree at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven and at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp. From 1971 until 1980, he obtained a Master’s Degree in Musical Pedagogy and Organ, and diverse important international awards and prices for Orchestral Conducting, including a Prix d’Excellence and the Price Annie Rutzky.
He started his career as principal conductor of the Flemish Chamber Opera in Antwerp (1979) and from 1980 until 1988, he conducted at the Opera houses of Antwerp and Gent.
Edmond Saveniers conducted for the Radio and Television Broadcasting Corporations of Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria and Japan. Between 1990 and 1991, he made three concert tours to Japan with the performance of diverse Mozart works on original instruments. For the Coronation of the Japanese Emperor, he conducted in 1990 an Imperial Concert, broadcasted by the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation. He conducted ballet productions in Amsterdam (NL) and opera in Coburg (DE)
Until 2013 Edmond Saveniers was professor at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven for orchestral conducting and organ and at the Conservatory of Maastricht, and founder and director of the Lemmens Institute Symphony Orchestra.
He is artistic director of the Marsyas Chamber Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra of the University of Leuven. With this orchestra he every year makes a concert tour with concerts in Hungry, Denmark, France, England, Prague, Italy, Friesland, Spain, Poland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Georgia (EU) and Slovenia.
In 1996, Edmond Saveniers founded the Marsyas Chamber orchestra with his gifted students and professional colleagues, developing and researching the problem of the tempi in the works of Beethoven. With this orchestra, he performed a world premiere of the recently discovered chamber version of the fourth piano concerto.
Since 2012 he is a life-time member of CODA – College Orchestra Directors Association USA with lectures, masterclasses and productions at Florida State University – Tallahassee -, and yearly conferences at Chicago, Cleveland, Fort Worth / Dallas and Cincinnati. 2016 will be at Salt Lake City university.
Edmond Saveniers has a large repertoire, which includes opera, operetta, ballet music, symphonic music, film music, oratorio and concerti for soloist and orchestra, and this from the baroque time until today. He makes a very far going research about different musical backgrounds, including publishing articles about these subjects.
