Who is Patrick Verhaegen?

Short Biography

Patrick Verhaegen was born on March 21th 1972 geboren in the little village of Hallaar (Flanders, Belgium). He was the seventh child in a family of eigth children. When he was ten years old he joined the royal fanfare-band "De Berthoutzonen" from Hallaar. First he learned to play the cornet, but later changed to baritone. He also took lessons at the music school of Heist-op-den-Berg: the lessons of Walter De Meester (baritone) and of Dirk De Nef (Music Theory) were the most interesting.
In his youth Patrick Verhaegen played under a number of excellent conductors. He played with Jozef Ratajczak. This conductor introduced him to the "Zuiderkempische Brass Band" where he played some concerts with the famous English conductor Derek Broadbent.
Patrick Verhaegen took a masters in musicology at the Catholic University of Louvain. His professors included Ignace Bossuyt (medieval, renaissance and barok), Jan Caeyers (classic and romantic), Mark Delaere (20th century), Stanislas Deriemaeker (music theory) en Joris Verdin (score reading and basso continuo). During his studies Patrick Verhaegen also studied 1 year in Oslo (Norway). He studied at the University of Oslo with e.g. Finn Benestad.

After his studies Patrick Verhaegen made his living emptying garbage containers. He also had jobs as a jail keeper, a teacher and a civil servant. His true love always remained with music. He started a youth band ("De Berthoutbengels") of which he was the conductor for several years. For this youth band he started to write music and to make arrangements.
For the moment Patrick Verhaegen teaches music in the KTA Paramedic Institute of Malines (Mechelen). He's also the conductor of the Royal Fanfare Band De Eendracht from Keerbergen and the Royal Fanfare Band Rust Roest Verbroedering from Heist-op-den-Berg. He writes both arrangements and original music. He's happily married with Eva Vleugels and they have 2 children, Sien and Stan.