The VUB Orchestra will have a new artistic director from 2026: Charlotte Panouklia will succeed Jurgen Wayenberg, who is handing over the baton after thirty years. With Charlotte Panouklia, the VUB Orchestra welcomes a new artistic leader who brings both experience and fresh perspective to the 80-member university ensemble.
Charlotte Panouklia is an experienced conductor and soprano, with a career spanning a range of musical fields. As an orchestral conductor, she has worked with ensembles including the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège; as a choral conductor, she served as cheffe de chœur of the Maîtrise de la Cathédrale de Liège. As a soprano, she has performed on major Belgian stages, such as the Antwerp Opera, and more recently she even assembled and conducted an orchestra for the international film production Bolero by Anne Fontaine. The VUB Orchestra is known for its annual themed concerts. In autumn 2024, the orchestra explored themes of migration and hope, performing masterpieces by Dvořák and Bruch. The ensemble comprises around eighty musicians—a mix of students, alumni, VUB staff, family members and supporters—and presents a series of autumn concerts each year across Brussels and Flanders. Over the past three decades, it has brought more than two hundred musical works to the stage, often centred on a social theme, resulting in an original and wide-ranging symphonic repertoire. Charlotte describes her appointment as a milestone in her conducting career. She is looking forward to, as she wrote on her Instagram account, “making music together with these 80 (!) dedicated and brilliant musicians” and “beginning a new musical chapter”. With Charlotte’s arrival, the VUB Orchestra is entering a new era. Preparations for a new programme will begin later this year, with its traditional unveiling scheduled for the autumn.