Loris Douyez, an accomplished accordionist and violinist, made his final recital concert on September 4, 2024, featuring a diverse program of original accordion works by leading contemporary composers, including Sofia Gubaidulina, Claude Ledoux, Denis Bosse, Jukka Tiensuu, Luciano Berio, and by Douyez himself.

Douyez, born in Mons in 1999, began his musical studies at a young age, learning violin, and accordion from his father. He has performed internationally at prestigious festivals and competitions. His accolades include second place in the 2021 Coupe Mondiale Masters Category and the 2022 PIF Castelfidardo PREMIO International Competition. Recently, he received the Nany Philippart Foundation and Chopin Stichting Stiftung Foundation scholarships. Douyez also holds five masters degrees in violin and accordion and is currently an assistant professor of accordion at Arts² in Mons, Belgium.

The recital opened with Sofia Gubaidulina’s Et Exspecto (1985), a five-movement sonata that showcased the accordion’s unique ability to “breathe,” a characteristic that fascinated the composer. The piece utilized a range of dynamic and tonal effects, including mobile clusters and festive chords, demonstrating the accordion’s expressive potential.

Claude Ledoux’s Entre-Vagues irisées (2023), dedicated to Douyez, incorporated wave-like sounds and breaths, inspired by Asian music traditions. Ledoux’s composition for accordion was delicate and introspective, blending traditional and contemporary elements.

In Denis Bosse’s Lettre à George Floyd: It’s my face man (2020-2023), Douyez performed a poignant tribute to George Floyd. The work used the accordion’s bellows to represent Floyd’s dying breaths, while the performer recited Floyd’s last words, creating a deeply moving experience.

Jukka Tiensuu’s Aufschwung (1977) followed, offering Douyez the freedom of quasi-improvised passages.  Aufschwung is a quasi-improvised piece for solo accordion, leaving the soloist a very large freedom. The goal is to build and assemble sound micro-cells little by little before putting them together  generating gigantic clusters culminating in a grandiose explosion, matching the piece’s title meaning “Boom” in German.

Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XIII ‘Chanson’ (1995), dedicated to Teodoro Anzelotti, explored the accordion’s evolving role in music and reflecting Berio’s fascination with the instrument’s history and its potential for innovation.

Douyez also performed his own composition, Missa Brevis (2022), a suite in four movements that combines classical, folk, and jazz influences in search of new musical ideas. This wide-ranging approach brings a unique personal expression to the performer and takes listeners on a boundary-defying journey. Missa Brevis exemplifies this vision, serving as a transitional work between a Mass and a requiem. Designed for concert performance rather than religious services, its four movements invite deep reflection, combining mysticism, spirituality, and a meditative atmosphere shaped by rhythmic heartbeats and diverse sound spectrum.

As an encore, Douyez played Salvatore Sciarrino’s Caprice n°4 for solo violin, a nod to his dual career as both a violinist and accordionist. This closing piece reinforced his commitment to both instruments, marking the concert as a significant milestone in his musical journey.

In addition to his impressive performance career, Loris Douyez continues to shape the future of accordion music through his collaborations and compositions with renowned composers like Denis Bosse, Claude Ledoux, and Stéphane Orlando, contributing to the creation of over 50 works for accordion, both solo and ensemble. Notably, he performed the Belgian premiere of Per Nørgård’s accordion concerto Recall with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège at the Classic Academy 2021. As a composer, Douyez’s music has been performed internationally, and his recent work, Oppression for accordion and orchestra, was featured as a test piece in the 2023 Prix Accordéons-nous.org competition in Mons, Belgium showcasing his significant contribution to modern accordion repertoire.