Walter Boeykens, born in 1938 in Bornem, studied clarinet at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels.His career skyrocketed after he left the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Belgian Radio and Television in 1984. Since then, he has worked with the most renowned conductors and ensembles and has been playing an enormously varied repertoire which, since the start of his career, has always included contemporary works as well as masterpieces from the Classical and Romantic periods. In 1965 Boeykens had already become a prize winner in the Gaudeamus Internationale wedstrijd voor hedendaagse muziek (International Competition for Contemporary Music Performers) in Utrecht and was entrusted with the creation of Pierre Boulez’ Domaines for Clarinet and Orchestra in 1968. He was also invited to some of the most prestigious music festivals in Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, Madrid, Salzburg, the Walloon Provinces, and of course, the Festival of Flanders. As a soloist, he performed with various orchestras in Israel, the USA, Venezuela, Mexico, Japan, and Korea…

In addition to his career as a clarinettist, Boeykens is also a well-known pedagogue and conductor. As a pedagogue, Boeykens was affiliated with the Royal Conservatory of Music in Antwerp, where he founded the Walter Boeykens Clarinet Choir, and taught at the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music, the Académie Internationale d’Eté in Nice, the Cité de la Musique in Paris and the Scuola di Alto Perfezionamente Musicale in Turin. As a conductor, he worked with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Brabants Orkest in the Netherlands and the Orchestra Filharmonica di Torino. Walter Boeykens was awarded the following prizes: the fifth Prudens Van Duyse Award in 1988 and the Special Culture Award of the municipality of Bornem in 1995. In 1996, he also received the Golden Medal of the Flemish Government and to crown his entire musical career he was knighted by the Belgian King Albert II in 1997, and in November 2007 the title of “Maestro Honoris Causa” at the Antwerpse Hogeschool was bestowed upon him by the Foundation of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Antwerp.