After completing her classical education, she studied musicology and art history at the University of Leuven, where she obtained her doctorate in 1962 with a thesis on the Antwerp lute composer Emanuel Adriaenssen.
She was a scientific assistant at the National Centre for Research on the Flemish Primitives and at the Royal Library Albert I, representative of the National Fund for Scientific Research and assistant at the KULeuven. She was an art advisor, concert manager and music librarian, music critic and radio producer.
She is a laureate of the Interuniversity Competition and twice a laureate of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters & Fine Arts. She received the 1976 History Prize from the Province of Antwerp.
Her scientific research focuses mainly on the history of lute music in the Low Countries and Antwerp musical life during the Ancien Régime. She has published numerous contributions in national and international encyclopaedias and biographical dictionaries, in magazines, books and exhibition catalogues. In addition to the two anthologies of lute music by Adriaenssen and the book about his life and work, she published a collection of 17th-century harpsichord music from the Southern Netherlands (Monumenta Flandricae Musicae, 4) and a book about the 17th-century Antwerp painter Alexander Adriaenssen Emmanuelszoon.
In recognition of her joint oeuvre, she received the provincial prize for history and folklore in Antwerp in 2006.
On this webpage you will find her notes on the Carillonneurs of Antwerp (Antwerpse stadsbeiaardiers, deel II, 1650-1897). This is a sequel to the 1993 book: The Antwerp city carillonneurs, which was published by the Provincial Commission for History and Folklore.
Her other contributions include:
- De Antwerpse muzikanten Henri-Adrien, Jan Frans, Engelbert en Coleta Tobi, kinderen van componist Henri-Joseph Tobi (1741-1809)
- Nieuwe gegevens over de Antwerpse zangmeester-vioolbouwer François-Joseph Wilmet (1735- ca. 1789)
She also wrote a whole series of articles about the Antwerp lutenists (Antwerpse luitslagers) that you can find on our website.
In 2009 she published the book: Geluit in Antwerpen , published on the occasion of the first international European Lute Festival in February 2009 in collaboration with Amuz and the Belgian Lute Academy.
In 2014 she published her magnum opus on the Antwerp city musicians: Antwerpse stadsspeellieden (ca. 1411-1794), Universitas, Antwerp.
De Zuidelijke Nederlanden en de luitmuziek (13de-18de eeuw). was published in 2018.