About this Artist
In 1994 PIETER EMBRECHTS (b. 1972) graduated at the Studio Herman Teirlinck (the Antwerp Actors’ Academy) with highest distinction as Master in Dramatic Art. His mentor was the celebrated Flemish actor Jan Decleir. Ever since Pieter has been a very active and headstrong actor, singer/songwriter and director. He is also a passionate conceiver and host of various television programs.
Pieter has been very productive as singer and songwriter, in the bands El Tattoo del Tigre and The New Radio Kings. In 2004 LC Music released the album Maanzin with songs in Dutch written and composed by Pieter. The highly personal touch of the songs was greatly appreciated by the public and the press. In 2013-2014 Pieter wrote a large number of new Dutch songs, contacted six inspiring musicians, and organized a concert tour (more than 50 sold-out concerts between February and August 2014). Presently Pieter is recording a second full album of songs in Dutch, due for release early 2015.
To support charity and important movements Pieter wrote songs for UNICEF, the Flemish government, and the University of Antwerp, among others. For many years Pieter has been writing songs for the organization Te Gek, a public forum that tries to create more awareness for mental problems. Pieter wrote five songs for Te Gek, two of which have been released on CD.
Together with his sister Tine (actress and singer) and his brother Bert (musician), Pieter was awarded the first prize of the first edition of the festival Theatre at Sea (in 1997) for their music theater performance The Sea Still Rises. With other actors and friends Pieter created a theater company called De Kakkewieten in 1995. All members of the company continued their own individual artistic careers, but occasionally got together to create further highly successful musical theater plays through 2011. Pieter worked ongoing as playwright, director, actor, and music composer. In 2001 that led to a very personal poetical concert entitled “Qu’ on sert théatral” with which he toured very successfully in 2001 and 2002. In the past few years Pieter has composed a lot of music on behalf of theater productions in famous Flemish theaters. In 2007 he wrote music and lyrics for the musical Sunjata, which was one part of the series “W@=D@.”
Pieter has also been given important parts in TV series, movies (including animation voice-overs for Flemish versions of Disney and Pixar films), and audio plays.
In 2009 Pieter was invited by the Spectra Ensemble to sing Frankenstein!!, composed by HK Gruber and illustrated by Sebastiaan Van Doninck. Concerts took place in Bruges (in the Concert Hall “Het Concertgebouw”), Leuven, Ghent, Antwerp, and other Flemish cities.