Jan Van Elsacker won first prizes for singing and piano at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp.
Between 1987 and 1991 he sang with ensembles including Collegium Vocale and La Capelle Royale (direction: Philippe Herreweghe), La Petite Bande (direction: Gustav Leaonhardt and Sigiswald Kuyken) and Anima Eterna (direction: Jos van Immerseel).
He also worked with the Currende Consort (Erik van Nevel) with which he has made several radio and television recordings and CD’s (in the “Flemish Polyphony” series).
Outside Belgium, Jan Van Elsacker appears regularly with Le Poème Harmonique (Vincent Dumestre), L’Arpeggiata (Christina Pluhar), La Fenice (Jean Tubery), Concerto Palatino (Bruce Dickey) and Weser Renaissance (Manfred Cordes).
In 1996 he was a prizewinner at the international competition Musica Antiqua Bruges. In 2003 he was the central figure at the Musica Antiqua Festival of Bruges, where in addition to the Combattimento di Tacredi e Clorinda (Monteverdi) he gave a Schumann recital with the pianist Claire Chevallier. In January 2008 he made his debut as Orfeo (Monteverdi) in the National Opera House of Poland with the ensemble La Fenice (direction: Jean Tubery)
Jan Van Elsacker visited all the important early music festivals such as the Festival of Flanders, Early Music Festival Utrecht, Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, Festival Baroque de Pontoise and many others.
“An exceptional Evangelist, giving staggering precense to the text”, Jan Van Elsacker is much sought after every year to perform the Passions of J.S.Bach. But his refined sensibility is also marvellously suited to Italian monody of the early seventeenth century.
Jan Van Elsacker is since 2010 voice and ensemble teacher at the Early Music Department of the Musikhochschule Trossingen.
