bio
Anke Verslype is a drummer and composer from Antwerp and obtained her Master’s degree in Jazz Drums at the Royal Conservatory 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. Outside of the conservatory, she further developed herself as a drummer and musician, taking lessons with, among others, Steve Clover and Toni Vitacolonna.
Anke Verslype is both a drummer and a composer. In 2020, she launched her own project: aki. With aki, she develops her own music together with various musicians and in different line-ups. The collective has released two EPs independently and two full-length albums on W.E.R.F. Records (Nader in 2022 and Het tij in 2024). For these projects, she collaborated with, among others, Joachim Badenhorst and Niels Van Heertum. In 2023, the group won the prestigious Jong Jazztalent Gent award and performed their new music on the main stage of Gent Jazz 2024.
In 2019, she played drums for the project While I’m Still Young led by Jakob Bro. In 2019 and 2020, she wrote several big band arrangements, which she performed together with the Antwerp Jazz Orchestra and Chris Potter in 2019 and in spring 2022. She also performed with the Virago Symphonic Orchestra and composed the music for the dance production Haear by Sarah McFife Company. In addition, she created the music for the animated film EgoEcho by Ezra Belgrado.
Through her background, she is also active in the theatre scene. In the summer and autumn of 2019, she composed and performed the music for Killie Billie, the latest production by Theater FroeFroe, together with Ruben Den Brok and Hanne Torfs.
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In 2022–2023, Verslype was Artist in Residence at RATAPLAN Antwerp, where she had the opportunity to develop and present new projects. In this context, she collaborated with, among others, Bert Dockx, Jozef Dumoulin, Lynn Cassiers, and Yannick Peeters.
n the summer of 2024, she performed the music of PJ Harvey (led by Liesa Van Der Aa) for the production I Want Absolute Beauty by Ivo Van Hove, featuring dancers from La Horde and Sandra Hüller in the leading role. The production premiered at the Ruhrtriennale in Bochum in 2024.
Furthermore, Verslype is a regular member of the jazz trio Bodem (led by Adia Van Herentals) and Festi (led by Fien Desmet) and the live band of Liesa van der Aa. In 2025, she started a trio with Artan Buleshkaj and Loni Cornelis, for which she also composes the music.
In 2025–2026, in collaboration with HA Concerts, 4Hoog, Jazzlab, and Rataplan, she created a theatre concert for children focused on meditative music in which children can actively participate. This production, BRIES, premiered on February 19 at HA Fest.
