Van Wauwe is a regular guest at international music festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Heidelberger Frühling, the Kissinger Sommer, the Cheltenham Festival, the West Cork Chamber Music Festival and the Festival de Radio France in Montpellier. Van Wauwe made her debut at the BBC Proms in summer 2017 with concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan Hall. In 2018, she performed Mozart's Clarinet Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, broadcast live on radio and television worldwide. In 2023, she performed Copland's concerto there with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Ryan Bancroft.
Van Wauwe's infectious passion for contemporary music has already prompted a number of composers to write music for her. In 2017, Manfred Trojahn dedicated his "Sonata V" to her. The world premiere took place in Zurich and was followed by a recording for BBC Radio 3. The clarinettist has also been intensively involved with yoga for years and incorporates the positive influences of yoga not only into her everyday life, but also into her clarinet playing. This led to a commission from Wim Henderickx, who composed "Sutra" for her: a clarinet concerto based on breath and meditation, jointly commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and premiered in 2022 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins.
Future commissions for Van Wauwe are planned with Annelies Van Parys, Benjamin Attahir, Karol Beffa and Guillaume Connesson.
Annelien Van Wauwe has been recording exclusively for the Dutch label Pentatone since 2018. Her first album "Belle époque" with the Orchestre National de Lille under the baton of conductor Alexandre Bloch was released in 2019 and won her the Opus Klassik award for best up-and-coming artist in 2020. Her most recent recording "FLOW" from 2022 with the NDR Radiophilharmonie under Andrew Manze includes Mozart's Concerto for Basset Clarinet and Henderickx's "Sutra".
An enthusiastic chamber musician, Van Wauwe is the founder of the Belgian chamber music ensemble CAROUSEL, which was established in 2019. Highlights of the ensemble's work to date include concerts at the Bijloke Gent, De Singel Antwerpen, the Concertgebouw Brugge, the Concertgebouw de Vereeniging Nijmegen, the Philharmonie de Luxembourg, the Wigmore Hall London and the Beethovenfest Bonn. In 2021, Van Wauwe founded the woodwind quintet BREEZE together with the four other woodwind players from CAROUSEL. Her other chamber music partners include Pavel Kolesnikov, Paloma Kouider, Cédric Tiberghien, Severin von Eckardstein, Victor Julien-Laferrière, Amihai Grosz, Tabea Zimmermann, Quatuor Danel, Schumann Quartet, Quatuor Van Kuijk, Aris Quartet, Zemlinsky Quartet, Trio Karénine and Amatis Trio.
Annelien Van Wauwe studied with Sabine Meyer in Lübeck, Yehuda Gilad in Los Angeles, Pascal Moragues in Paris, Alessandro Carbonare in Rome and Wenzel Fuchs and Ralf Forster in Berlin, among others. In the field of historical performance practice, she studied classical clarinet with Eric Hoeprich and Ernst Schlader. She is now also a sought-after teacher herself, regularly gives master classes and is a professor at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.