Category: cv (Page 1 of 4)

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Marc Grauwels is undoubtedly one of today’s most prominent Belgian flutists.
He owes this status, of course, to his talent, charisma, and dynamic, generous personality, but also to his innate gift for communication.

His eclectic approach as an international soloist has inspired around a hundred composers from around the world to write works specifically for him. Notably, Ennio Morricone dedicated the flute solos of his Cantata for Europe to him, and in 1985, Astor Piazzolla dedicated the famous Histoire du Tango to him.

Even before completing his musical studies in his home country, Marc Grauwels secured his first orchestral position at the Flanders Opera at the age of 19. At the same time, he continued his studies with mentors such as James Galway and Jean-Pierre Rampal. In 1976, he became principal piccolo at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels (Belgium’s National Opera), a position he left in 1978 to become principal flute of the Belgian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra. He remained there for ten years, though he was also selected for the same role in 1986 when the renowned World Orchestra was formed under the baton of Carlo Maria Giulini. His career as a soloist subsequently took off at an impressive pace, leading him to leave orchestral work for good in 1987. Alongside his performing career, he taught for fifteen years as a lecturer at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and for twenty-five years as a full professor at the Royal Conservatory of Mons. In February 2001, following a tour of Asia, Naxos executives in Hong Kong decided to dedicate a special series within their catalog to him, titled “The Flute Collection.” Over the coming years, this collection will expand to include 30 CDs featuring flutist Marc Grauwels (20 Naxos CDs are already available worldwide).

Marc Grauwels also contributed to the soundtrack of Miloš Forman’s film Amadeus, performing—alongside Thomas Bloch and the ensemble Les Brussels Virtuosi—the magnificent Adagio for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola, and cello (K. 617).
He also performed the early sonatas, the quartets, and the Concerto for Flute and Harp for the complete Mozart edition released as a single 170-CD box set. This “Gold Record” set is currently enjoying unprecedented commercial success for Brilliant Classics, marking the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth (with over 100,000 copies already sold).

He serves as artistic director of the Classissimo Festival at the Théâtre du Parc in Brussels, the I Virtuosi di Waterloo chamber orchestra, and the Les Plaisirs d’Été festival in Mont-de-Marsan.

With at least 100 concerts worldwide each year, over 80,000 web pages dedicated to him, and a discography boasting more than 60 CDs as a soloist, Marc Grauwels demonstrates that a sound artistic strategy can lead a flutist to tremendous public success today.

In both his career and his performances, Marc Grauwels remains true to his own personality—which is by no means the least of his qualities.

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Jean-Noël began his piano studies at the Bastogne Music Academy. He later moved to Brussels, where he was awarded the French Community Medal—first in 1989 at the Anderlecht Music Academy for piano, and subsequently in 1993 at the Uccle Music Academy for saxophone.

A distinguished graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, he earned higher diplomas in piano (studying with Diane Andersen) and chamber music (with Serge Bémant), as well as a First Prize in accompaniment and a diploma in piano teaching methodology. He also won a gold medal at the Tourcoing Conservatory (France) and was a prize-winner at the Belfius Classics competition. His encounter with the renowned pianist and pedagogue Roberte Mamou proved pivotal for the subsequent course of his career.

Jean-Noël has performed in major venues across Belgium and abroad—including Colombia (with the Tolima Orchestra), the Octobre Musical de Carthage in Tunisia, and various festivals in Italy (Valentiniano), France (Catalogne-Céret, Clé de Soleil, Manoir d’Ango), Hungary, Switzerland, and Luxembourg—appearing in both recitals and chamber music settings. He has performed with laureates of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, such as Daniel Blumenthal, Albrecht-Laurent Breuninger, Tatiana Samouil, and Kyoko Yonemoto, as well as renowned soloists including Walter Boeykens, Alexandre Brussilowsky, Sarah Nemtanu, Aki Saulière, Raphaël Bell, Julien Beaudiment, and Gyorgy Pauk. In 2006, he won second prize in the chamber music category at the Torneo Internazionale di Musica (TIM) in Rome alongside violinist Jean-Frédéric Molard (concertmaster of the Wallonia Chamber Orchestra). Their duo’s (Duo GEMINI) debut CD for Pavane Records—featuring works by Adams, Pärt, and Lysight—was nominated for the 2014 Octaves de la Musique awards, as was a subsequent album dedicated to the music of Marcel Cominotto. The CD Illuminations was released in 2019 on the Musicube label, featuring Belgian premieres and the renowned Illumination Rounds by American composer David Lang.

The duo received the 2023 FUGA Trophy, awarded by the Union of Belgian Composers in recognition of their commitment to promoting the Belgian contemporary repertoire.
His dedication to contemporary music has also been demonstrated through numerous concerts at the Emergence Festival—where he served as artistic director for four years—and through his ten-year tenure on the Contemporary Music Council of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB). Furthermore, he has premiered works by many Belgian composers—including Michel Lysight, Marcel Cominotto, Claude Ledoux, Jean-Paul Dessy, and Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven—notably at the Ars Musica festival.

His repertoire spans from Bach to the present day, with a particular affinity for the great Romantic works, which allow his temperament and lyrical style to shine.

His work as an accompanist has included several years at the Brussels Conservatory and participation in some thirty masterclasses—held in Bruges and France—alongside prestigious violinists such as Gérard Poulet, Marie-Annick Nicolas, and Jean-Pierre Wallez. After teaching and serving as deputy director at the Uccle Music Academy, he has been its director since 2025, while also working as an accompanist at the Bertrix Music Academy.

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Born in 1974 in Iran, Shahriar Sharifpour discovered the santour in 1989, a traditional Persian instrument that has had a lasting influence on his musical sensibility. After studying at the University of Art in Tehran, he taught music at several institutes in Iran while developing his work as a composer.

In 2002, he was awarded prizes at the 2nd edition of the Iranian University Music Festival (Tehran), where he received the second prize for composition in classical music as well as the second prize for composition in traditional Iranian music. In the same year, he made a symphonic arrangement of the work Arezouy-e Jân, performed by the National Orchestra of Iran at the Saad Abad Palace in Tehran.

Having settled in Belgium in 2012, he continued his studies at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels with Daniel Capellettiand Michel Lysight, where he obtained a Specialized Master’s degree in Composition with distinction. He also furthered his training by participating in several composition masterclasses with composers such as Elisabeth Chojnacka, Graham Fitkin, Frederic Rzewski and Guillaume Connesson.

In 2018, he participated as a santour player in a musical project led by Swiss composer Simon Ho, devoted to the live musical accompaniment of the silent film Egged On (1926) by Charley Bowers, presented notably as part of the Ghent Silent Film Festival (Belgium). The project brought together fourteen musicians from East and West, from different musical traditions and backgrounds, around an original composition by Simon Ho, with musical direction and coordination by pianist Emma Heijink. After a year of rehearsals and collective research, the ensemble developed a musical language combining traditional Eastern and Western instruments, as well as pop, jazz and rock influences. The project resulted in numerous concerts and performances in Belgium.

His work as a composer lies within the field of contemporary music. His writing explores the relationships between modal thought, rhythmic organization and orchestral colour, incorporating certain characteristics of Persian musical traditions into a resolutely contemporary language, without resorting to quotation or stylistic imitation.

His works have received recognition in several international competitions. A laureate of the Courants d’Air Festival of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in 2015 and 2016, several of his works were selected and performed on six occasions as part of the Osmose Intermezzo International Composition Festival (Brussels) between 2017 and 2025. In 2020, he received the second prize at the Artistes en Herbe International Composition Competition (Luxembourg), was a finalist in the Prix Vedrarias International Competition (France) with his work Il n’y a rien à voir for sixteen flutes, and became a laureate of the 2nd edition of the Prof. Marin Goleminov International Composition Competition(Bulgaria). In 2021, he won the first prize at the Prix Vedrarias International Composition Competition (France).

In 2026, his work L’âme ou la matérialité received a Mention of Merit at the 4th International Patricia Adkins Chiti Composition Competition, in Bari, Italy.

His catalogue includes works for symphony orchestra, wind orchestra, ensembles, chamber music and solo instruments, regularly performed in Belgium and abroad.

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Irma Bilbao (1957) (pseudonym of dr. Françoise Vanhecke) PhD, soprano ISFV®, pianist, actress, researcher, improvisator and soundpainter is versatile artist using bel canto, extended techniques and improvisation.

She is a Doctor in Arts/Music and the pioneer of a new extended vocal technique ISFV® Inhaling Singing with a notation system.

She started composing when she was 13 years old. Luc Goosen and Jan Decadt discovered her composing talent. Mauricio Kagel, Boudewijn Buckinx, and Maria de Alvear have encouraged Irma Bilbao. Her music is performed worldwide including choral music, piano music, voice and ensemble music, soundscapes, poetry, electro pop, theatre music, classical and not western polyvalent styles and instruments. Despite a number of clearly recurring elements, Irma Bilbao’s compositional oeuvre is globally very eclectic and differentiated.

Each of her works is the result of a unique creation process, but always carries a number of typical characteristics, which by analogy with Bilbao’s career as a performing musician. Through Bilbao’s oeuvre is the frequent presence of strongly theatrical elements in her compositions making use of improvisations moments and humour are implemented. This fact can be linked to Bilbao’s strong predilection for melody in the broad sense of the word and to the idea of composing in function of the aesthetic experience of the audience. She has a strong ambition to write more large-scale works in the future.

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PIGEOLET Laurent

Born 27 December 1969
Rue de la Pierrère 24
B-1435 Hévillers
Belgium
Tel.: +32 10 60 26 19 – +32 474 219 659
E-mail: laurent@laurentpigeoletcompositeur.be
Website: http://www.laurentpigeoletcompositeur.be

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Composer – Pianist – Improviser

Key skills

Professional experience since 1991:

• Composition for a wide range of ensembles, from solo works to symphony orchestra. Works for dance, theatre and film.
• Concert pianist and improviser.
• Complete list of works and repertoire available on the website.

Commissions and performances for festivals and competitions

• Kidzik Festival 2025 and 2026
• “Attention musiques fraîches!” – Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles (La Bellone 2005, Arsonic, Flagey 2024)
• Musiq3 Brabant-Wallon Festival 2022
• Ars Musica Festival 2010
• Dexia Classics Competition (violin, viola, double bass), 2011
• Loop Festival
• Emergence Festivals 2008 and 2010
• “Belgian Chocolates” Festival 2002
• Godefroid Competition (harp), 2012

Concerts, compositions and improvisation for dance, theatre and film

• 2026 – present: solo performance “Volera, volera pas” (Jeunesses Musicales)
• 2023 – present: creations with the “Son-corps-voix” collective and CHP (Centre Henry Pousseur)
• 2022: “Leos Janacek” project: completion of Sonata 1/X/1905 for piano
• 2022 – present: film music for the Cinémathèque Méliès in Paris
• 1994 – 1995: accompanist and improviser at P.A.R.T.S.
• 1993 – present: accompanist and improviser in dance education at Lycée Martin V, Louvain-la-Neuve
• 1998 – 2000: collaboration with the theatre company “Walking Around” (Chile)
• 2003: collaboration with the theatre company “Labora Vertigo”
• 2014 – 2018: performance tours with the theatre company “Stoemp”
• 2015 – present: live cinema performances (piano improvisation to silent films)
• 2018 – 2022: “Origines” duo with Laure Stehlin, flute
• 2018 – present: concert tours with Erwin Liénart, violin
• 2017 – present: “Toccanta” duo with Marie Fripiat, voice
• 1996 – 1998: MIFA project (Music, Computer Science, Visual Arts): management of a collective composition project with students as part of the “Wallonie-Québec” exchanges organised by AQWBJ
• 1996: Nuits de La Hulpe
• 1992 – present: numerous concerts with orchestra, in chamber music ensembles and as a soloist
• 1988 – 1991: choir member, Ensemble Vocal de la Communauté Française de Belgique

Professional associations

• Member of the IRCAM Forum
• Member of the Forum de la Création
• Member of the Union des Compositeurs Belges
• Member of SABAM
• Member of Tara No. 3767-1

Teaching

1992 – present: teacher of analysis and musical writing, piano and improvisation; accompanist for singers, instrumentalists, and classical and contemporary dancers at:

• Royal Conservatory of Brussels
• Royal Conservatory of Liège
• Royal Conservatory of Mons
• Institut Supérieur de Musique et de Pédagogie (IMEP), Namur
• Music Academies of Court-Saint-Etienne and Wavre

1998 – present: Cuban salsa teacher

Education and qualifications

• 2024: Master’s Degree in Didactics (Highest Distinction), Royal Conservatory of Mons
• 2004: First Prize in Orchestration, Royal Conservatory of Mons (class of Claude Ledoux and Denis Pousseur)
• 2003: First Prize in Composition, Royal Conservatory of Mons (class of Claude Ledoux and Denis Pousseur)
• 1994 – 1997: Higher Diploma in Piano, Royal Conservatory of Liège (class of Joseph Alfidi)
• 1996: Second Prize in Practical Harmony, Conservatory of Liège (class of Guy Luypaerts)
• 1993 – 1995: Second Prize in Electroacoustic Composition, Royal Conservatory of Mons (class of Annette Vande Gorne)
• 1994: First Prize in Written Harmony, Royal Conservatory of Mons (class of Luc Dupuis)
• 1992 – 1993: Higher Diploma in Piano (first year), Royal Conservatory of Brussels (class of Evgeny Moguilevsky)
• 1987 – 1992: Laureate Diploma in Piano and Music Pedagogy (High Distinction), Institut de Musique et de Pédagogie (IMEP), including First Prizes in:
  • piano (class of Tatiana Evdokimova)
  • chamber music
  • music history
  • solfège
• 1981 – 1987: secondary education, Lycée Martin V, Louvain-la-Neuve

Music software

User of music software on Mac and PC: Sibelius, Dorico, Musescore, ProTools, Reaper, Audacity, IAnalyse, Counterpoint, MAX/MSP, etc.

Additional training

• 2018: Beatboxing workshop with B-Flow, Lycée Martin V, Louvain-la-Neuve
• 2015: Stress management workshop with Claudine Pierson (ESAHR)
• 2015: Medieval music workshop (Hildegard von Bingen) with Catherine Schröeder, Centre de musique médiévale, Paris
• 2014: Home Studio workshop with Pascale Snoeck, AKDT, Libramont
• 2014: Improvisation for film workshop with Benjamin Macke, AKDT, Neufchâteau
• 2011: Music technology workshop “developing your project with MAX/MSP” at IRCAM, Paris
• 2010: Music technology workshops (MAX/MSP) at IRCAM, Paris, and with Roald Baudoux, Brussels
• 2010: Music technology workshops (MAX/MSP) with Roald Baudoux, Brussels
• 2009: Cuban music workshop with Patrice Banchereau, AKDT, Neufchâteau
• 2007: Composition workshop with Gian Paolo Luppi, Claude Ledoux and Jan Van Landeghem, Mircourt
• 2004: Electroacoustic music workshop with Georges Bouche and Alain Denis, IMEP
• 2004: Schenkerian analysis with Nicolas Méeus (DEA, UCL)
• 1992 – 1995: Piano and organ improvisation workshops with Dominique Bodson, Firmin Decerf and Pirly Zurstrassen
• 1994: Improvisation for dance workshop with Isabelle Fontaine (ESAHR)
• 1992 – 1993: Electroacoustic music seminars with Francis Dhomont, Michel Chion and Robert Normandeau
• 1991: Choral singing seminar with Henry Pousseur and Pierre Cao

Languages

• French: native language
• English: good working knowledge
• Spanish: good working knowledge
• Dutch: basic knowledge

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Yolande Uyttenhove (1925-2000) began studying piano at a very young age with her mother and gave her first public performance at the age of four.

Yolande Uyttenhove holds seven First Prizes from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, a degree from the Royal Academy of Music in London, and is a laureate of the Barcelona International Piano Competition.

A composer of over two hundred works, she graduated from the Vercelli International Composition Competition (Italy) and won the gold medal at the Lutèce International Composition Competition in Paris for her Sonata for Violin and Piano, Opus 95.

A member of the Board of Directors of the Belgian Composers’ Union, she was honored with the Martin Lunssens Prize, the SABAM Diploma of Honor, and the Bronze Medal of Arts, Sciences and Letters of France, which she received at the age of 24.

Her work as a pianist and lecturer has taken her to many European countries, Canada, and the United States, to prestigious venues such as Wellesley College, Cambridge (Harvard), and, in April 1998, California State University.

On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Marie Antoinette’s execution, she was invited to perform at the Conciergerie. She is the author of the book ‘Marie-Antoinette, Queen and Musician’.

Honorary Director of the Braine-l’Alleud Academy of Music, Yolande Uyttenhove received the Fuga Trophy in 1987 for her contributions to Belgian music.

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Juan Marco Albarracín (born in Buenos Aires in 1984) grew up in Neuquén, in Argentine Patagonia. He took his first steps into the world of music with his mother, a doctor and pianist, and began composing at the age of eight. Later, while studying economics at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), he privately studied composition with composers Daniel Montes and Lucas Fagin. He then pursued his higher education in Europe, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague under the tutelage of Cornelis de Bondt, before completing his Master’s degrees at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp under Wim Henderickx, and at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels under the tutelage of Daniel Capelletti.

Juan Marco Albarracín’s artistic approach offers a personal solution to the limitations of tonality, rejecting the systematic transition to absolute chromaticism. By exploring the limits of harmony, voice leading, and dense counterpoint, he develops complex and dramatic musical architectures. His musical language thus approaches, conceptually, the fantastic literature and Latin American magical realism, seeking to construct a tonal stylistic universe that unfolds like a “fantasy” parallel to the “real” historical repertoire. His music does not seek to comment on or gloss past practices, but rather offers an open and demanding dialogue with Western history, constantly nourished by the rhythmic richness and dramatic nostalgia of his Argentine roots. This work is also deeply inspired by his passion for literature, finding major aesthetic points of reference in authors such as Dante, Goethe, Proust, and Borges.

A committed figure in the contemporary music scene and instrumental research, he collaborates closely with specialized performers and ensembles. His work is particularly evident within the Ricercare Collective, with whom he has already performed around ten concerts in Belgium, as well as through his collaborations with the Cairn Recorder Quartet and the Sturm! Ensemble. Active in Brussels, his chamber pieces have also been performed by ensembles such as the Erämaa Trio and the Manestri Trio as part of the Osmose Festival. He is currently collaborating with the Chilean poet Agustín Benelli on a major vocal and orchestral work, which will premiere in Concepción, Chile. In parallel, Juan Marco Albarracín is dedicated to his most ambitious and long-term creative project: the composition of Anton Bruckner’s Tenth Symphony in a decidedly personal style. He is a member of the Union of Belgian Composers.

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Anne Martin (1969) studied composition with Claude Ledoux at the Royal Conservatory of Mons after having studied harmony, counterpoint, fugue, and been introduced to electroacoustic composition.

Concurrently, she pursued studies in philosophy at the ULB (Université Libre de Bruxelles), where she wrote a thesis on the intimate consciousness of time, particularly in a musical context, influenced by Husserl and other phenomenologists. However, her true passion for teaching stems from her commitment to justice and her fight against the abuse of power, as an active member of the “White Movement.”

Currently, she teaches philosophy at the secondary level, having previously taught music history and analysis.

Her compositional work, rich in literary and philosophical references, is expressed through numerous pieces for solo instruments or small chamber ensembles.

(see also ArsMusica)

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Lieven Baeyens was born on March 10, 1951, in Wilrijk (Antwerp). His maternal grandmother, Maria Hye, introduced him to the world of music. Gaby Van Nuffel (keyboard) and Jan Van Bouwel (music theory) were his first teachers at the Leuven Municipal Conservatory.

He graduated from the Lemmens Institute with several first prizes in 1974. Frans Geysen is a source of inspiration in the fields of composition and analysis. He attended masterclasses in Remscheid (Germany) at the Akademie für Musische Bildung und Medienerziehung (Pavel Blatny, composition, and Peter Trunk, improvisation) and in Moltifao (Corsica, France) with the Fédération nationale d’Associations Culturelles et d’Expansion Musicale (Michel Corboz, stage director).

As an independent student, he studied theatre at the University of Antwerp, as well as at the Universities of Utrecht and Amsterdam on an Erasmus grant.

From 1986 to 2000, he taught dramaturgy, text and music analysis, choral conducting, and theatre projects at the Faculty of Arts of the Eindhoven Academy of Dramatic Art (now Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Tilburg, Netherlands).

With set designer Diane Batens, he founded the IOTA theatre working group (vzw) in 1989, and ten years later, the IOTA company (asbl). Initially based in Barvaux-sur-Ourthe, and since 2006, the workshop at the Poupehan-sur-Semois school in Bouillon has been recognized by the authorities of the French Community of Belgium through a partnership agreement. With professional collaborators, they have created around twenty stage productions for young people and toured Europe with contemporary dance, theatre, visual performances and opera.

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Born in 1940, he completed his musical studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, where he earned First Prizes in solfège, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, and organ, as well as the Alphonse Mailly Prize.

A concert performer, he has appeared in Belgium, Germany, and England, giving over 750 concerts. As a composer, he has written more than 165 works, including a symphony, a concerto for organ and orchestra, four cantatas, a concertino for violin and orchestra, sonatas, chamber music, songs, and more.

Among his works, noteworthy are the Piano Sonatina, Opus 63, awarded a prize by the Higher Council for Art and Aesthetics of Europe, and the Concertino for Two Pianos, Opus 30, premiered at the Belgian Music Biennial in 1972 on RTBF (the Belgian French-language public broadcaster).

In 1984, his Esquisse concertante, opus 99, for organ, and in 1990, his Capriccio for clarinet and piano, were required pieces for the end-of-year competitions in the academies of the French Community by the Ministry of Culture.

In 1992, he was invited to compose Classic as the required piece for the Crédit Communal National Competition. His work Hymn from Antwerp for four brass instruments and organ was premiered as part of the “Antwerp, European Capital of Culture” celebrations.

Also in 1992, the Union of Belgian Composers awarded Félix Snyers the “Fuga” trophy in recognition of his ongoing contributions to contemporary Belgian music.

A professor since 1960, he obtained, by examination, the position of director of the Academy of Music and Spoken Arts of Molenbeek-St-Jean in 1977. Félix Snyers is the artistic director of the Musical Hour at the Town Hall of Molenbeek-St-Jean, and editor of the periodical Fuga of the Union of Belgian Composers.