bio

Anke Verslype is a drummer and composer from Antwerp who obtained her Master’s in Jazz drums at the Antwerp Conservatory in 2020. Throughout the years, she took lessons from Jan De Haas, Teun Verbruggen, Stephan Galland, Stijn Cools, Eric Thielemans, Lieven Venken, Herman Pardon, Free Desmyter, Kurt Van Herck and Bert Joris. Next to her studies in the conservatory, she deepened her education as a drummer / musician and took classes with Steve Clover and Toni Vitacolonna.

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​Coming out of high school, Anke was admitted to the drama department 'Kleinkunst. Two years in, she decided to focus specifically on drums.  She started studying at JazzStudio Antwerp, in both the pop and jazz sections. In 2015 she started her studies at the Antwerp Conservatory.

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Anke Verslype is both drummer and composer and has always written music in all kinds of styles and genres, ranging from electronic music to big band arrangements. After playing the drums in other bands (Fortress, Whilla Whisper, etc.) Anke is now presenting her own project: 'aki’. With aki  her own compositions are brought to life by different musicians with every new outing, which helps to tell a different story on every album.
 

In 2019 she played drums for the project “While I'm Still Young” led by Jakob Bro. In 2020 she wrote a big band arrangement that she would perform together with The Antwerp Jazz Orchestra and Chris Potter in April 2020 (due to Covid - 19 this was postponed to may 2023) and played with the Virago Symphonic Orchestra. She also wrote the music for the new dance performance Haear by Sarah Mck Fife Company and she created the music for Ezra Belgrado's animated film Ego Echo.

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Because of her background, Anke also works in the theater scene and in the summer / fall of 2019 she wrote and played the music for Killie Billie, the latest new production of Theater FroeFroe, together with Ruben Den Brok and Hanne Torfs.

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During the season 2022 - 2023, Anke will be artist in resedence at RATAPLAN together with Willem Heylen, where she will have several new collaborations. In 2022 she started one with Bert Dockx and in 2023 there will be a collaboration with Jozef Dumoulin, Yannick Peeters, Lynn Cassiers and Frans Van Isacker. 

She will also present new music with aki there later this season and again with a slight change in instrumentation. 

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