Olivia Wahnon de Oliveira

Olivia Wahnon de Oliveira is a graduate of the university of Brussels (Université libre de Bruxelles ULB) with two Master's degrees, both in Philosophy and Musicology (History of Art). She completed her training with the agrégation and CAPAES.

She started her career in the pedagogical department of the Opéra Royal de Bruxelles, then turned to a scientific activity at the university of Brussels ULB as a musicology researcher for 7 years. She conducted research on music publishing and music merchants in 18th-century Liège. She subsequently worked at the Royal Library of Belgium on the archives of Franz André, the famous conductor of the INR (Belgian radio at the time).

In 2000, she also began teaching: first as a lecturer at the Paul-Henri Spaak College, then as a lecturer at the Leonardo da Vinci College and as a professor at the Institut Royal d'Histoire de l'Art IRSHAAB and assistant professor at ULB.

In 2008, she made a career change by joining the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles as Head librarian of the institution's prestigious library. She has taught the Music Encyclopedia class and has been Methodology coordinator for students' master's theses.

As a librarian in one of the world's most renowned libraries, Olivia Wahnon de Oliveira has been very much involved in promoting the in-house collections, collaborating on concert programs or exhibitions, taking part in radio broadcasts, writing online publications, being published in the specialist press or invited to speak at symposia or congresses.

She has invested a great deal in developing the Conservatoire's library collections and succeeded in taking over the CeBeDeM (Centre belge de documentation musicale) music library in 2015, when this institution closed its doors, ensuring the preservation of a 350-metre collection of scores by 20th-century Belgian composers.

Olivia Wahnon de Oliveira regularly publishes articles in the Revue belge de musicologie, such as:

• "Du Recueil général des opéra bouffons (Liège, 1771-85) ou de l’histoire d’une contrefaçon de plus en plus avouée" (vol. LI, 1997, pp. 101-135) ;
• "Albert Zimmer (1874-1940): dévoilement d’une correspondance, révélation d’une intense vie musicale" (vol. LVI, 2002, pp. 53-98);
• "Echanges épistolaires autour de la production de Wozzeck d’Alban Berg au Théâtre royal de la Monnaie en 1932" (vol. LVIII, 2004, pp. 251-286);
• "Gevaert et l’édition de la musique ancienne" (vol. LXV, 2011, pp.71-95);
• "La collection Rossini de la Bibliothèque du Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles augmentée de deux documents autographes", (vol. LXVII, 2013, pp. 283-290);
• "Le Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale" (vol. LXIX, 2015, pp. 283-304) ;
• "De l’intérêt de Fétis pour les instruments Sax à la création de la classe de saxophone" (1867) au Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles (LXX, 2016, pp. 191-209).

She also publishes articles in other scientific journals or symposium deeds and produces other publications such as facsimile of a piece by Jean-Jacques Robson, Piesce de clavecin op. 1 (Liège, B. Andrez, 1749), CEDESOM-ULB, 2003 or another book on the work of Franz André (1893-1975), radio conductor. Correspondence and archives, Brussels, Belgian Royal Library, 2003.

As a librarian, in 2014 she launched a collection of scores under the title Pièces inédites du Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, in conjunction with Editions musicales Castejon and the Royal Conservatory's Early Music department. The collection features musical manuscripts held at the library, as well as works by Anton Fils (2017), Charles-Joseph Van Helmont (2016), Carl-Philipp-Emanuel Bach (2015), Henri-Jacques de Croes (2015) and François-Joseph Fétis (2014) that have recently been published for the first time.

Olivia Wahnon de Oliveira has also been regularly invited to present concerts and operas at BOZAR and La Monnaie Opera house.

In October 2023, Ms. Wahnon de Oliveira becomes Director of the Conservatoire.