Karel Miry

He was one of the first Belgian composers to write operas to librettos in Dutch and is known as the composer of the music for De Vlaamse Leeuw, the national anthem of Flanders, for which Hippoliet van Peene wrote the lyrics.

[1] Karel Miry was born and died in Ghent, where he studied the violin with Jean Andries and harmony and composition with Martin Joseph Mengal at the Royal Conservatory.

He completed his studies at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where he was a student of François-Auguste Gevaert.

Miry succeeded Andries as a professor of harmony and counterpoint in 1857, and in 1871 he became the assistant director under Adolphe Samuel of the conservatory.

His most famous work is De Vlaemsche Leeuw (The Lion of Flanders), which was very popular and became the official national anthem of the Flemish Community on 6 July 1973.