Jan Depreter
Jan Depreter will be a performer at the Guitar Festival 2025
“The guitar the way I love to hear it,” Pepe Romero said about Jan Depreter after hearing his performance at the Antwerpen Gitaarfestival. With 16 international prizes at 11 top competitions for the classical guitar in barely five years time Jan Depreter is one of the most internationally acclaimed guitarists in Belgian history. He is also the first and only ever Belgian to win the Concours International Printemps de la Guitare, where he was awarded the gold medal by H.M. Queen Fabiola of Belgium.
Acclaimed world-wide as “the Sound Painter” of the classical guitar, Jan Depreter has graced the main stages of most top festivals in over 30 countries in the Far and Not-So-Far East, both Americas, the Russian Federation, Australia and throughout Europe. The only continent Depreter has not played is Antarctica. But he doubts the penguins would be interested.
Second son to a couple of French teachers, Jan has been a dedicated teacher non-stop since 1992 in his hometown of Antwerp, where since 2010 he also hosts the Antwerpen Gitaarfestival.
He has been invited to give masterclasses at the Conservatoire National Supérieure de Musique de Paris (FR), the Royal College of Music of London (UK), the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire of Moskou (RU), the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow (UK), the Royal Conservatoire of Amsterdam (NL), Beijing University (CHI), California State University (USA), Folkwang University Essen (GER), Prins Claus Conservatoire Groningen (NL), the Conservatories of Siena and Avvelino (IT) and at the Trinity Laban College in London (Royal Greenwich Festival, UK).
Jan Depreter is the only Belgian guitarist to feature at the biggest online pedagogical platform Tonebase with over70.000 subscribers. His online videos at Siccas Guitars and Guitar Salon International have reached over a million views.
Composers Andrew York, Armand Coeck, Konstantin Vassiliev, Richard Vaughn, Nejc Kuhar, Paul Monballieu, Ricardo Abreu and Wulfin Lieske have dedicated works to Depreter.
Jan Depreter’s compositions are published by Metropolis, Auurk en Ricordi (Universal Music).
13 acclaimed CD recordings with Klara, QBK, Sony, EMI and Brilliant Classics underline his artistic accomplishments. Julian Bream wrote Depreter a thank-you note after listening to About “Dedication - music for Julian Bream,” calling the CD “fascinating”. Depreter’s legendary recording of Armand Coeck’s guitar music remains the only classical guitar recording selected as one of the 100 most important recordings by Belgian artists in history by EMI, flanked by recordings by Toots Thielemans, Jacques Brel and Axelle Red.
Jan Depreter currently lives in Antwerp, where - apart from reading Terry Pratchett novels - he still feels playing the guitar is probably the most fun anyone could have by themselves.
Jan Depreter - Northern lights
Jan Depreter - Live classical guitar concert . Siccas Guitars
Jan Depreter plays No.3 of five Bagatelles by William Walton on a 1966 David "Jose" Rubio
Jan Depreter started training in music at the age of five and rec
eived his first guitar age eight. He started like all his brothers and sisters with lessons at the Antwerp Academy and followed suit at the Lemmens Institute where he quickly obtained his First Prizes and concert diplomas for guitar at age 19. He continued training at the Royal Conservatories of Antwerp and The Hague, in the class of Zoran Dukic, where he obtained both Master and Performance Degrees. Jan Depreter is also a trained pianist and has a Degree as a singer, specialised in ancient music.
With 26 years of teaching experience at the Antwerp Academies, and four years as professor of guitar at the Conservatories of Antwerp and Mechelen, many of his students are already pursuing successful careers of their own.
Describe your approach to teaching
My approach to teaching is a personal responsibility and a tailor-made mission. The pendulum is swinging back once more to the need of the performer to understand the variety in tone colouring is in fact the essence of what defines the charm and makes our beloved instrument unique in the world of classical music. The epitome of an accomplished mission as a teacher is making one’s self redundant, having instilled the “eagerness” – the pupil’s spark, to explore and improve by themselves.
What inspires your own work?
Life – Death – Love
Poetry – Painting
and silence