Belgium's Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel chooses Yamaha as Her Majesty Queen Paola opens expanded new facilities

Belgium's internationally renowned Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel has joined the growing ranks of prestigious training centers of excellence investing in Yamaha grand pianos, significant highlights include the installation of the flagship CFX concert grand piano and 5 CF6’s.

The Music Chapel, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2014, was founded in 1939 as an initiative of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. It now looks to the future and the next chapter of its development with a brand new building that will effectively double its ‘footprint’ from 1800m2 to 3600m2. Ten years in the planning, the new building will offer a wide range of facilities including expanded residential accommodation, increased teaching areas, and the creation of a state-of-the-art broadcast and recording studio capable of accommodating 150 performers. The New Building is to be opened by Her Majesty Queen Paola of Belgium on 27th January.

The founding principles of the Music Chapel remain as true today as when the institution was inaugurated: a system of companionship with Masters in Residence and connections to leading cultural partners throughout Belgium and the world, including leading orchestras and concert halls. All soloists in residence are professionally tutored in all aspects of career development, thus ensuring that upon graduation they are equipped for a wide range of work.

The Executive President of The Music Chapel is Bernard de Launoit who comments, “We welcome talented musicians from all over the world, they are not really students any more, they are young artists and they have the opportunity to study with prominent artists and with our Masters in Residence. Yamaha is a multi-national company and we are smaller but we have connections all over the world. Working with such a connected company as Yamaha will create great opportunities over the next years.”

Many of the Yamaha pianos were personally selected at Yamaha's Hamburg headquarters by Maria João Pires, a Master in Residence at the Music Chapel. The full inventory of Yamaha pianos selected is 1 x CFX, 5 x CF6, 3 x C3XPE, 8 x C2X PE, 2 x C3 SH Silent and 4 x C2 SH silent models.

The acquisition of so many Yamaha Pianos further develops a long-standing partnership between the Music Chapel and Yamaha. A video in which the distinctive ethos and ambitions of the Music Chapel are discussed and Maria João Pires describes the piano selection process can be seen here.

For more information visit: http://musicchapel.org/