Developing Classical Repertoire

Our Mission

We firmly believe that archives and libraries from all over the world still hold exceptional pearls of unknown music by composers from the Low Countries. 

The Southern part of the Low Countries, Flanders, a small region at the heart of Europe, wasn’t a musical desert during the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. 

The Collective seeks to discover, catalogue and study. More importantly, seeks to turn research into practice by giving this music a fair chance to establish itself in the modern day repertoire by means of high-quality recordings and public performances. 

Terra Nova Collective not only seeks to develop new repertoire, it also seeks to develop new musical instruments, long since forgotten, new formats of presentation and education and new soloists who might one day champion this music.

The Collective

Developing Classical Repertoire

Terra Nova Collective is based in Antwerp, Belgium – a city brimming with history. Its musicians are also connected to world-renowned ensembles such as Anima Eterna, Les Muffatti, B’Rock Orchestra, Les Agrémens, Freiburger Barockorchester, Concerto Köln, Le Concert d’Astrée and others. 

Terra Nova Collective is proud to have MIM Brussels, Vleeshuis Museum Antwerp and the Study Centre for Flemish Music as their research partners. It frequently invites eminent researchers to projects, such as Piet Stryckers (researcher and lecturer Royal Conservatoire Antwerp), Godelieve Spiessens (musicologist) and Albert R. Rice (musicologist, clarinettist). 

In 2016, Terra Nova Collective gave the world premiere of the Missa Maria Assumptae by J.A. Faber, a Baroque mass containing the first ever solo for clarinet. The recording met with rave reviews in the international press, with Diapason writing about the ensemble, ‘magnificently doing justice to a palette of surprising colours.’ 

In season 2017–18, the recording and performances with a historical basset clarinet put Mozart’s famous concerto in a new light. In collaboration with the University of Antwerp, seven lesser known composers were presented in a series of 14 concerts, called Trouvailles. 

Touring brings the ensemble in season 2018–19 at various places in New York City and at the Takamatsu Festival Musica Antiqua in Japan.

In 2019 Terra Nova released a double CD, featuring  the clarinetto d’mare, a forgotten instrument from the Mozart era. 

The Ryelandt Revival was conducted in 2020; a combination of a CD and cultural biography  about Joseph Ryelandt.

I urge anyone who likes to broaden his horizon to investigate it” - JOHAN VAN VEEN

— MUSICA DEI DONUM

The Musical Director

Vlad Weverbergh

Vlad Weverbergh’s focus is the rediscovery and performance of unjustly neglected composers and their music. For this reason, he founded the Terra Nova Collective in 2012 as artistic and musical director. He handpicked the musicians to create a flexible group in formation, with an adventurous drive to tackle its unique repertoire. Vlad’s musical insights stem from a fruitful and comprehensive career as a clarinettist.   

Vlad graduated from the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp in 2000 after studying the clarinet with Walter Boeykens. Upon completing his studies he stayed on at the Conservatoire as guest lecturer of chamber music until 2002. Performances with conductors and symphony orchestras have taken him to stages all over Belgium, as well as Austria, Hungary, Romania and Germany.   

Vlad Weverbergh has an extended discography which contains most of the great works for clarinet and a series of world premiere recordings. He is bass clarinet professor at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp and has extended experience as a recording producer.

Het is een openbaring van herontdekte muziek die vertrouwd klinkt, en toch nieuwsgierigheid doet opborrelen.” - KNOPKAYA CULTUURPAKT

— CULTUURPAKT

The Musicologist

The research and dramaturgy of David Vergauwen form an integral part of Terra Nova Collective’s profile. Musicological research is embedded in a bigger perspective on history and the arts, reflecting David’s personal interests and studies. David is also an active member of Amarant, specialised in modern painting, opera and the history of music, with a preference for Belgian music. 

David Vergauwen studied History, Art History and Musicology at the University of Ghent and Brussels and graduated with a PhD in History. He has written monographs on aspects of freemasonry, and of priesthood in the Middle Ages. He is a regular contributor to publications in his fields of study. 

David Vergauwen teaches Art History in Bruges and is Research Fellow at the University of Antwerp and the Conservatoire. Amongst other endeavours, he currently contributes to a 2020 museum exhibition and concert series on The Late Romantic Era in Bruges, centered around the composer Joseph Ryelandt.