Peter Swinnen studied at the Royal Brussels Conservatory and the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, before obtaining a doctorate in the Arts at the vub in Brussels. Starting in 1990, he taught the cello and musical analysis at several music schools and went on to teach musical technology and composition at the Royal Brussels Conservatory, of which he has been director since 2008. He collaborates with a number of ensembles on live performances of electronic music in contemporary works. His compositions include chamber music for various (sometimes electronic) instruments, solo works, lieder, symphonic poems for large orchestra, symphonies, concertos, cantatas, ballets, and music for films and the theatre, some of which has been recorded for radio, television, and CD. His works have been premiered at the Flanders Festival, Ars Musica, Wien Modern, the International Frederyk Chopin Festival, the World Carillon Congress, etc. He has received numerous awards, including the CERA Prize - Jeugd en Muziek Vlaanderen in 1991 for his entire body of work and the Composition Prize of the Province of Antwerp for his opera The Petrifying Blue in 1992. He has twice won the prize for a Belgian composition to be played as a compulsory work in the semi-final of the Queen Elisabeth Competition : with Canzone in 1997 and with Ciaccona in 2001. In 2005 he became a laureate of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and the Arts.