Bert Helsen - bassoon

Bert Helsen is born in Antwerp, Belgium. In 2004 he received with his teacher Dirk Noyen his Master ‘s Degree for bassoon at the Lemmens Institute Leuven. After that, he specialized at the IMEP Namen with Grazziano Moretto.

For five years he was appointed in the Symphony Orchestra of Flanders. Since 2010 Bert Helsen is appointed as bassoon solo in the Belgian National Orchestra. With this National Orchestra he performed a couple of times Mozart’s bassoon concerto such as a concert with the famous maestro conductor Walter Weller. Throughout the years he made a lot of experience in other orchestras and ensembles.

He likes the most to find new technical and musical challenges in contemporary music, so he can expose, express more his personality on the instrument.

So, in 2014, he founded the HaftCraft Ensemble. The ensemble started successfully with several different kind of projects as ‘Variations on a Persian Theme’, ‘7 Tears’ Dowland/Kõrvits and many more. Since the start of the ensemble they travelled already to Iran, China and Estonia. In 2019 they released a first CD with hybrid Iranian/European music.

Since the Covid period, Bert Helsen is member of the Styx Ensemble. A wind quintet focussing on contemporary classical music. In the end of 2023 they had a project collaborating with Dave Douglass and inspired on Frank Zappa’s music.

Since 2024 he’s collaborating with the Needcompany for their “Lee Miller” opera project.

Since 2016 he is appointed as bassoon professor at the Lemmens Institute Leuven, Belgium. (part of Luca School of Arts)