Luc Mishalle is a tenor/soprano saxophonist, a composer and an artistic director.

Biography

Luc Mishalle (°1953) is a musician with a rather unorthodox curriculum. From 1976 he starts working as a musician and composer in bands such as: Welfare State International, Emergency Exit Arts (GB), Dogtroep (NL), Internationale Nieuwe Scene and Tiedrie (B). At the same time he performs in the ‘Jazzfanfare St Juttemis’ (NL).

From 1983 onwards he specializes in musical projects from non-western origin and he is the founding member of a series of bands that have a European breakthrough: : Belçikal, Raï Express, Marakbar…Next to these initiatives, he also performs with top musicians from the improvising music scene and gets several composition commissions from Flemish institutions: Monty (Antwerp), Vooruit (Ghent), Stad aan de Stroom (Antwerp), CCB, Wapurgis (Brussels), Zuiderpershuis… From 1988 he is active in contemporary music: he then performs 10 years in Blindman Saxophone Quartet and occasionally with Ictus and QO2.

More recently he took up his longterm relation with theatre again and composes or performs for companies such as muziek LOD, De Werf, Het Paleis, theater Stap (B), Ro-theater, DNA (Nl). He has published in several magazines and books and is featured on over 20 Cd’s and Lp’s.

Since 1998 he is artistic director of MetX (before De Krijtkring) and has developed groups like Al-Harmoniah, Fanfarrah, Aywa! and Marockin’ Brass. Moreover he is artistic coordinator of large scale events such as the opening of Brussels 2000, 3 times the Molenbeek part of the Zinneke parade, 3 times Samhain (Neerpelt), Stadsvisioenen (Mechelen2009). In May 2009, the book: Een stoet van kleur en klanken, de muziek van Luc Mishalle & Co, written by Paul De Bruyne was published by Academia Press. The book describes the musical traject of Luc Mishalle put in his historical context.

In 2017 he received the Princess Margriet award from the European Cultural Foundation.