bio
Anke Verslype is a drummer and composer from Antwerp. She obtained her Master’s degree in Jazz Drums at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp in 2020. Over the years, she studied with Jan De Haas, Teun Verbruggen, Stephan Galland, Stijn Cools, Eric Thielemans, Herman Pardon, Free Desmyter, Kurt Van Herck, and Bert Joris. Beyond the conservatoire, she continued her musical education, taking private lessons with Steve Clover and Toni Vitacolonna, among others.
Verslype is active both as a drummer and as a composer. In 2020, she launched her own project aki, through which she develops her own music with various musicians and line-ups. The collective has independently released two EPs and two full albums on W.E.R.F. Records — Nader (2022) and Het tij (2024). For these, she collaborated with artists such as Joachim Badenhorst and Niels Van Heertum. In 2023, the group won the prestigious Jong Jazztalent Gent award and presented their new music on the main stage of Gent Jazz 2024.
In 2019, she played drums for While I’m Still Young, a project led by Jakob Bro. In 2019 and 2020, she wrote several big band arrangements, performed together with the Antwerp Jazz Orchestra and Chris Potter in 2019 and again in early 2022. She also performed with the Virago Symphonic Orchestra and composed the music for the new dance production Haear by Sarah Mck Fife Company, as well as for the animated film Ego Echo by Ezra Belgrado.
Thanks to her background, Verslype is also active in the theatre world. In the summer and autumn of 2019, she wrote and performed the music for Killie Billie, the latest production by Theater FroeFroe, together with Ruben Den Brok and Hanne Torfs. The performance was revived for several seasons.
In 2022–2023, Verslype was Artist in Residence at RATAPLAN Antwerp, where she was given the opportunity to develop and present new projects. During this time, she collaborated with musicians such as Bert Dockx, Jozef Dumoulin, Lynn Cassiers, and Yannick Peeters. In the summer of 2024, she performed the music of PJ Harvey for the theatre production I Want Absolute Beauty by Ivo Van Hove, featuring La Horde dancers and Sandra Hüller in the lead role. The production premiered at the Ruhrtriennale in Bochum (2024).
Furthermore, Verslype is a permanent member of the jazz trio Bodem (led by Adia Van Herentals) and Festi (led by Fien Desmet). In 2025, she founded a new trio with Artan Buleshkaj and Loni Cornelis, for which she also takes on the role of composer.
