Lennert Van Laenen

Lennert Van Laenen, born in 2004, started his musical adventure as a student of classical percussion and marimba with Walter van de Venne and Chin-Cheng Lin. Soon he got the chance to join the percussion ensemble of Brussegem and the local brass band. Later, in 2015, he was invited by Frans Violet to also join the youth brass band of Willebroek. Around this age, his interest in composition started and he started writing his first brass band work; Mitä. In 2022, Lennert started at LUCA School of Arts in Leuven, where he focused on a career as a classical percussionist with Pieter Mellaerts. Around this time he also published Sparkle, with which he won second place at the international composition competition of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain. A year later he also won third place, and the audience award at the European Composers Competition in Palanga with the work 'Red Planet'.