About Jos Wuytack

Jos Wuytack Jos Wuytack was born in Ghent, Belgium, on March 23, 1935. He earned his degrees of composition, piano, organ, and pedagogy at the Lemmens Institute, University of Louvain, where he became Professor of Music Pedagogy. He has also taught at the Music Institute of Namur, Belgium; the Music Conservatoire of Tilburg, Holland; and the Music Institute of Active Methods of Lyon, France, and was guest Professor at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States.

Throughout his international career as music educator, Jos Wuytack has developed an active and creative approach to music education based upon the principles of Carl Orff, who recognised Wuytack as a leading figure in this approach. He has often been invited to present at European and American universities and has taught over 1,000 courses and workshops for music teachers in 53 different countries in Europe, Africa, America, Asia, and Australia. His widespread activity in the training of music teachers has significantly contributed to the development of music education at an international level. In 1995 he received the Pro Merito Award from the Carl Orff Foundation in Münich, Germany, for his outstanding work in music pedagogy.

One of his most original contributions to modern music education, his pedagogical approach, Active Music Listening and Appreciation, has been published in Flemish (1972), French (1974), Portuguese (1995, 2016), and Spanish (1996), and has been widely used in Western Europe and North America. He has composed a wide range of vocal and instrumental works for piano, choir, recorder, Orff instruments, percussion, and orchestra, some of which have been recorded by Harmonia Mundi. He has published articles and books on music education in nine countries, and his songs with motions for children appeared in six different languages (Flemish, French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Chinese).

“It is not only a gift to be simple, it is a training.”