Maarten Beirens

Maarten Beirens is a lecturer in historical musicology at the University of Amsterdam. He studied musicology at the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium, where he also received his Ph. D. with a thesis on European minimal music. His publications include articles and chapters on European minimalism, the music of Steve Reich, Michael Finnissy, Karel Goeyvaerts, Louis Andriessen, Michael Nyman, and analytical strategies for minimal music. In addition to his academic work, he has worked as a music critic for the leading Flemish newspaper De Standaard and several other media from 1997-2014. From 2014 onwards he is the general director of Festival 20•21 in Leuven, which includes the artistic direction of the Transit festival for present-day music.