Sofie Vanden Eynde & Imago Mundi

Lieselot De Wilde, soprano Sofie Vanden Eynde, lute & theorbo Christmas and Advent exercise a strong emotional pull on us in contemporary Europe, whether we, or our societies, are Christian or not. The festival is deeply rooted in our societal ideals, to which we cannot help but respond. It is no coincidence that domestic violence rates spike at Christmas, or that shelters and women’s refuges are at their fullest. The pressure for everything to be OK, the weight of expectation,…

Souls in Exile Clare Wilkinson or Griet De Geyter, voice Sofie Vanden Eynde, lute, theorbo and artistic direction Moneim Adwan, voice & ud In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art. (Rumi) Melancholy. Longing for the inaccessible. Yearning to lose oneself in paradise. An impossible love. Dissatisfaction with our existence on earth….

…musical depictions of nature from Persia and the West by IMAGO MUNDI, in collaboration with NEUE HOFKAPELLE GRAZ Marie Friederike Schöder, soprano Maryam Akhondy, voice Lucia Froihofer, baroque violin Hadi Alizadeh, daf & tombak Liam Fennelly, viola da gamba Nariman Hojati, tar Sofie Vanden Eynde, lute and theorbo Michael Hell, flutes and harpsichord In the cultures of the West and the Middle East, nature is frequently associated with concepts of being and creation. Handelʼs Nine German Arias are set…

In my end is my beginning is a stage production in honor of ill-fated queen of Scots Mary Stuart (1542-1587). Please note that we call this a “stage production” for want of a better term: although it resembles the classical recital format – featuring a singer with lute and pianoforte accompaniment – it goes much further: In my end is my beginning is also a dramatized concert, a chamber opera, a multimedia event, a soundscape, if not a videoclip. En…

Sofie Vanden Eynde, lute & theorbo Saad Mahmood Jawad, ud (Irak) a meeting of relatives with a common past Western artists look to the Muses for inspiration; in the Arab world, jinns are on hand to grant your deepest wish. Invisible beings captivate our imaginations, conjuring up worlds that no-one ever dreamt were possible. The magical inner world of dreams – or at least as close as consciously possible – is where Belgian lutenist Sofie Vanden Eynde and Iraqi oud…

Istanbul: a city of loose ends, treacherous depths and constant efforts to bridge them. Together, Sofie Vanden Eynde (lute) and Mustafa Doğan Dikmen (voice) have pieced together its many facets to assemble a kaleidoscopic portrait of the metropolis. It is not a straightforward image, but very much a colourful puzzle of interconnecting impressions and experiences. Passage steers a course between Anatolian folk dances and medieval troubadours, via Telemann and Ottoman classical song, navigating past the tears of Luigi Rossi’s Zaida…

T.E.N.E.B.R.A.E From dark to light Jana Pieters, soprano Khaled Alhafez, sufi voice Liam Fennelly, viola da gamba Tammam Ramadan, ney Sofie Vanden Eynde, theorbo & artistic direction Bart Jacobs, organ A little while ago, I had the honour of performing François Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres, settings of the Book of Lamentations in the Old Testament. The Lamentations of Jeremiah bewail the destruction of the Jerusalem in 587 BC, and are an integral part of Tenebrae services in the Roman…

… an autobiographical concert… November 2016. Lute player Sofie Vanden Eynde is afraid that her heart is going to give out. Her doctor spells out the diagnosis in capital letters: burnout. She’s a burnt-out building. Even the music is like a rope around her neck. Its as if her strings are sticky with adrenaline, playing is killing her. So she stops – for nearly a year. Today she’s taking stock. Her strings speak differently now: the silence between the notes…