Antwerp Queer Choir started in 2023 as a graduation project of the Educational Master at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. Danny De Jong and Isaak Duerinck wanted to create a safe place where people from the queer community can experience art and expression through singing together. 

DE SINGEL selected the project as Art Educator in Residence and after a festive first performance it became clear that it could not stop there. The choir grew into a permanent project and now has around sixty enthusiastic members. The three choir leaders guide the singers from their different backgrounds. Theatre maker and teaching artist Danny de Jong (he/him) coaches his students at the Stedelijk Conservatorium Mechelen in theatre, storytelling around the theme of identity and works from the same approach with the singers on expressiveness and a comfortable feeling on stage. Isaak Duerinck (he/him) is a musician, coach at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp and co-founder of the music theatre collective Les Âmes Perdues. He writes arrangements tailored to the choir and searches for harmony together with the choir members. Katrien Eerdekens (she/her) is a speech therapist and voice coach. In her practice Find Your Voice and in the Gender Team of Ziekenhuis Oost-Limburg, she works particularly with transgender people during and after their transition. Based on her many years of experience, she works with the singers on a healthy use of the voice and the search for a own, unique voice. In Antwerp Queer Choir you can make that voice heard, regardless of your gender identity or sexual orientation. The traditional voice division is thrown overboard, singing experience is not a must. In short: everyone who feels at home in the choir is welcome to stay. What it's all about is coming together and singing together, dialogue and connection. 

The choir aims to offer a safe and accessible space where queer people can express themselves and meet, inspire and strengthen each other. 

Despite their short history, the choir has already been invited to exciting collaborations. The singers sang in BERLIN's film project Our Private Lives, the performance White Flag by Benny Claessens (Opera Ballet Vlaanderen) and the release concert of the band Dressed Like Boys in the Minardschouwburg. Antwerps Queer Choir first stage production RAGE/ RAVE marks thenext step in their collaboration with De Singel.