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Born: March 13, 1923 - Antwerp, Belgium
Died: February 13, 1997 - Edegem, near Antwerp, Belgium |
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Frédéric [Frederic] Gevers, was a Belgian pianist and music pedagogue, General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in Antwerp Belgium He was a sensitive, artistically gifted man, who as a pianist and teacher exerted a broad and its spirituality and profound effect on many young musicians in Belgium and in other European countries. He belonged. the anthroposophical pioneer generation in Belgium and was characterized above all by its research-based, a small group stimulating, meditative efforts.
Frédéric Gevers’ father was a notary, his mother, Marguerite Craleux, a niece of Emile Verhaeren. Frédéric Stéphane Jacques Louis was the youngest of five siblings, the younger brother of Émile (Émile Gevers). He grew up outside of Antwerp in the country Missemburg, where the family Willems-Gevers lived in the middle of an old park. This milieu shaped Frédéric's artistic and cultural engagement and his love of nature. Frédéric had perfect pitch, got piano lessons since the age of 4, and the music was one of the factors that determined his life. He enjoyed an excellent education and his teachers included Walter Rummel, Paul Roes, Wilhelm Kempff and especially Yves Nat. In 1945, Frédéric married the musician Eva Hartung; they had two sons.
The end of World War II meant to Frédéric Gevers the beginning of a concert career that took him all over Europe and much of the world. Besides the many recitals and concerts, he felt the inner need - especially in chamber music - going even deeper into the background. The study of original scores, the performance practice and the biographical background was for him an indispensable context. In addition, it urged his humanistic background to other places and deeper questions. After a modest start the interest of students and audience grew for his question direction. Increasingly, he commented in his own country and abroad, the pieces he played impressively in four languages. Until his death, found in Waterloo with his friends Freunden Jacques and Henny Colson regular "concerts-Conferences".
In his later life, Frédéric Gevers’ his pedagogical talent became more and more present. In 1962 he was appointed to the Koninklijk Vlaams Muziekkonservatorium Antwerpen as a piano teacher. Until 1988, he trained many young artists in his homeland and abroad - particularly in Spain. He had his name known not only for pure piano technique, but "a way of life."
The other factor that influenced his life, anthroposophy, which he discovered through his five-year-older brother Émile at age 17. In a way, in the wake of his brother, he took part later on its initiatives. He belonged to the founding committee of the first Waldorf school in Belgium and was an active member of "Artium."
In 1996, his powers became weeker due to an illness, he had to end his concert career. He died on February 13, 1997.
Recordings: posthumous double-CD " Memorial Frédéric Gevers (2002), with texts by F. Gevers, edited by Olivier and Pierre Opdebeeck and his friends: Les Variations Goldberg by J.S. Bach, Ludus Tonalis by Paul Hindemith. |
