The Antwerp Conservatoire Library is the largest library for music and performing arts in Flanders. It houses an exceptionally rich heritage collection that documents a large part of Flemish and Belgian musical life – particularly the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – in the form of thousands of music manuscripts and prints, program booklets, archives, ego-documents, and dance and theatre heritage. The library is officially recognized by the Flemish Government as a heritage library of supralocal importance.
The research group Labo XIX&XX emerged within the Antwerp Conservatoire Library and functions as a research group in residence. The collection – and all the themes it represents – forms an important source of inspiration for the topics addressed within the group. Through this thematic focus, Labo XIX&XX brings together researchers from diverse backgrounds to shape the group’s project from various perspectives: performance practice, literary and theatre history, library and archival research, urban history, music analysis, digital humanities, and all possible connections between them.
Labo XIX&XX holds a unique position as the only (artistic) research unit in Flanders specializing in nineteenth-century musical heritage from its own region.
The research lines of Labo XIX&XX are as follows:
stimulating artistic research related to the heritage collection of the Conservatory Library
stage culture in Antwerp, Flanders, and Belgium in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with special attention to minors such as women, underrepresented groups and histories, and unique repertoire
history, personalities, and pedagogy of the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp
Team: Anne Pustlauk, David Vergauwen, Diederik Glorieux, Isabel Voets, Jan Dewilde, Matthijs De Ridder, Nicholas Cornia, Pauline Lebbe, Hannah Aelvoet (chair), Stijn Saveniers (coördinator)
Contact: Stijn Saveniers – stijn.saveniers@ap.be
(c) De Jonghe G.L. (1829-1893), 'Oefenen' (private collection)
Update: January 2026
