Les Lundis d'Hortense
- Address : Chaussée de Louvain 193a-195, 1210 Brussels
An association working to promote and disseminate Belgian jazz.
We are recognized in Belgium as one of the main interlocutors of the public authorities. The association receives financial support from the Ministry of Culture of the French-speaking Community of Belgium. For those wondering where the association’s quirky name originated, know, for the record, that it comes from the fact that the founders of the association held their meetings on Mondays in a villa on the outskirts of Brussels that went by the pretty name of ‘Villa Hortense’.
An association run by jazz musicians and fans to defend and share a unique approach to music
Les Lundis d’Hortense defends an honest and democratic approach of great importance to transmission and education, and ensures that the rights of musicians are respected and defended by acting in an exemplary manner and by calling on the media and the authorities when necessary.
Our missions are structured around three main axes: promotion, dissemination and training.
Ever since the prehistory of jazz, Belgium has been a thriving hub for musicians. Many of them settled here, and in doing so they wrote a history of Belgian jazz that bears comparison with cities such as Paris and London. Les Lundis d’Hortense is proud to present local musicians and aims to introduce an increasingly eclectic audience to the richness and talent of jazz men and women from Wallonia, Flanders and Brussels. The dissemination of this cosmopolitan music that combines a festive spirit, a sense of liberty, and great technical and theoretical mastery, also involves bringing it to different generations of jazz aficionados, whether through the Jazz au Vert summer camp or the various activities for young people organized throughout the year.
Our Board of Directors meets on a monthly basis to decide on activities and monitor their development.
75 per cent of the board is made up of professional jazz men and women. All are volunteers. In addition to the monthly meetings, they participate in various reflection and action groups in order to steer the activities decided on by the entire board and, twice a year they listen to 130 groups applying for the various concert activities, blindly and by voting anonymously, with a ban on voting for the groups in which they participate.
Members of the Board of Directors
Fabrice Alleman, Eve Beuvens, Tom Bourgeois, Joachim Caffonnette, Henri Courtois, Pierre de Surgères, Sylvain Debaisieux, Jean-Paul Estiévenart, Geoffrey Fiorese, Alexandra Gadzina, Sarah Klenes, Théo Lanau, Pauline Leblond, Linda Lores Blanes, Jean-Louis Rassinfosse, Christine Rygaert, Camille-Alban Spreng, Jean-Jacques Vandenbroucke, Michel Vrydag and Alexandre Wajnberg.
