Van Bergen & Kolacny, Classical on Sunday

10 AM doors expo 3 PM concert in hall Platform, an interwar cinema, a hidden pearl, heart of Antwerpen Zuid Door Van Bergen – tenor Jef Kolacny – piano With a velvety, powerful tenor voice and a maturity that far exceeds his age, Door Van Bergen (18) belongs to the most remarkable young voices of his generation in Belgium. In 2025 he won the Grand Prix Jeune Espoir at the Concours Opéra Raymond Duffaut van Opéra Grand Avignon and was proclaimed Young Belgian Talent 2025. In May 2026 he added the first prize Jeunes Talents to that at the XVIIe Concours Lyrique International Bell’Arte. De Vlaamse Overheid recognized his path within the top arts status, an exceptional distinction for a tenor of his age. Door has been following the wings of tenor and pedagogue Teun Michiels since he was twelve, and has been delving into the opera profession in the class of Natacha Kowalski at the Conservatoire Royal de Liège since this academic year. His development is also monitored by speech therapist and voice therapist Liesbeth Vander Velde, because the tenor voice only really reveals itself in the course of growing up, a process that requires patience and care. His repertoire spans song, chamber music, oratorio, and opera. Already at fifteen, he was a soloist in the Benedictus van Schuberts Messe no. 2 in G, alongside established names — an early confirmation of his artistic ambition. In the summer of 2024, he performed the title role of Aeneas in Purcells Dido and Aeneas (CloseOpera) and Ferrando in Crazi for tutti, Loïs Heirmans contemporary reworking of Mozarts Così fan tutte. He worked together with pianists Peter Jeurissen, Bert Koch, David Miller, and Jef Kolacny, and with Tínel Ensemble, Brussels Choral Society, La Chapelle des Minimes, LUCA Choir, and Octopus Kamerkoor. Masterclasses with Janice Chapman (London) and Thomas Blondelle broadened his artistic horizon. Met Tínel Ensemble he brings recitals around Britten, Poulenc, Chausson, and Vaughan Williams. Together with pianist Jef Kolacny, he forms a song duo that brings German romanticism (Schumann, Wolf, Schubert) to life. Door Van Bergen is building his career with conviction and the long perspective in sight, aware that the greatest tenors only fully unfolded in their mid-twenties. But what he sings today, he sings with the dedication of someone who has long since found his calling.