Dr. Swerts, Piet Jozef (b. November 14, 1960, Tongeren)is a Belgian composer, conductor and pianist of international acclaim; his large catalogue of more than 240 works includes stage, orchestral, chamber, choral, vocal, and piano works. Dr. Swerts studied from 1974-89 at the Leuven College of Arts (LUCA) Campus Lemmens in Leuven, where he obtained ten first prizes and for the first time in the history of the same institute the special Prize Lemmens Tinel for composition and piano with great distinction. Among his teachers were Alan Weiss (USA) and Robert Groslot. Since1982, he is Professor of Composition and Orchestration at the same institute, now Department of Drama and Music associated with the Catholic University of Leuven. He has been invited as guest professor in the Sweelinck Conservatory, Amsterdam, Netherlands, in the Department of Electronic Music at the University of Huddersfield, GB, the Polytechnic Institute in Castelo Branco, Portugal, as well as in the Polytechnic Institute North Karelia, Conservatory of Joensuu, Finland, and the Conservatory of Barcelona, Spain. In 2011, he became Doctor Phd in Arts with the greatest distinction at the Leuven University College of Arts with a comparative research of compositional canonic techniques between the L’homme armé Masses of the late 15th Century and contemporary composers who utilized the same melody. www.pietswerts.be zodiaceditions.com