Our conductor Elise Smout

Elise Smout was born in Brussels in 1988. 

She has been interested in music since childhood: first piano, then violin and finally singing. At 16, she joined “la Choraline”, the youth choir of La Monnaie. 

She goes on to study lyric singing at the Maastricht conservatory, where her interest in conducting grows. She starts her own ensemble: L'Orkest. In 2009, she is accepted into E. Delamboye's orchestral conducting class. 

She obtains her bachelor's degree in singing and conducting with P. Davin at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. She then leaves for Vienna as part of the Erasmus programme, where she takes classes with U. Lajovic, S. Pironkoff and J. Wildner, among others, at the “Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst”. 

After her stay in Vienna, she continues her training in orchestral conducting at the Mons Conservatoire in the class of D. Gazon and obtains her master's degree there in September 2016. 

Besides l'Orkest and conducting the Brussels Bachkoor, Elise conducts several amateur ensembles and choirs such as La Clé des Chants and Les Voy’Elles.