The roots of the Flanders Boys Choir can be found in Sint-Jozef-Klein-Seminarie, a secondary school in Saint-Nicolas. The Reverend Gerard Van Durme started a boys’ choir with secondary school pupils and called it In Dulci Jubilo (IDJ). The school soon proved to be too small for IDJ. The unique tone of a boys’ choir conquered audiences both at home and abroad and that is how In Dulci Jubilo earned a splendid reputation.

In 1993 Dieter Van Handenhoven, a former IDJ choir boy himself, became the choirmaster. He followed in Marcel Van Daele’s and Jan Van Landeghem’s footsteps with performances of Händel’s Messiah, The Coronation Anthems and Chandos Anthems, Purcell’s Aeneas, Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Fauré’s requiem.

In recent years the boys’ choir recorded two CDs. “Noyt Sulcken Liefde” (“Never Such Love”) offers a selection of lesser known old Flemish Christmas carols, featuring the tenor Guy De Mey. IDJ also recorded some of Haydn’s psalms, which were released on CD along with the Missa in Tempore Belli.

In addition to their own concerts the choir contributes to other projects on a regular basis. The boys join in performances of the Matthäus-Passion in Belgium and the Netherlands. Some of them were trained for a part in “Zoutloos” (“Saltless”), a Studio Orka musical theatre production.

Because the choir aspires to be an ambassador of the unique boys’ choir sound both in Flanders and abroad they changed their name into ‘Flanders Boys Choir” in 2016.