Marian Minnen
Marian Minnen performs within and outside Europe as a cellist with La Petite Bande (2004 -2014) and Les Muffatti from 2004. With this last orchestra, she was twice invited to perform a program as soloist. Since 2015, she has also been playing regularly with B’Rock.
She also wants to pass on her enthusiasm for the cello to students at the music academy in Turnhout and the music grammar school of the Heilig Graf in the same city. She also gives workshops to groups of string players : applying string technique in baroque music.
Marian studied cello and chamber music in Leuven, where she obtained the degree “Master in Music” with great distinction in 1996. From 1996 to 1999, she perfected her skills at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam with Dmitri Ferschtman and Ran Varon.
During the final year, she began studying baroque cello with Wouter Möller. She continued her studies with Jaap ter Linden and Lucia Swarts at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, where she graduated in 2003. She took international master classes with Collin Carr, Anner Bijlsma, Charles Medlam and Gaetano Nasillo, among others.
In 2002, Marian Minnen was laureate of the renowned international competition for soloists Musica Antiqua in Bruges. With the ensemble Rossi Piceno, she won prizes in international competitions for ensembles : Musica Antiqua Brugge in 2003 and Premio Bonporti in Rovereto, Italy in 2004. Their CD Trios per a Oboès by Joan Baptista and Josep Pla was released in 2006 by the Ramée label.
Her baroque cello was made after Guadanini by Charles Riché. Katrien Vandermeersch made her basse de violon after Snoeck/Bourbon. Her modern cello is an André Bernard from 1892.
Astrid Wauters
Astrid Wauters starts with cello with Jan Van Kelst. In 2008, as a young talent, she was invited to Marie Hallynck’s class at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, where she later obtained her Master’s degree.
She takes internships and master classes with Louise Hopkins, Wolfgang Boettcher, Philippe Bary, Guy Danel, Gaetano Nasillo, Robert Smith.
She is a member of the string quartet Akhtamar from 2014 to 2019 with which she obtained a Master after Master of Chamber Music at the LUCA School of Arts in Leuven with Guy Danel and perfected with the Debussy Quartet in Lyon, in addition to numerous master classes through ProQuartet and ECMA.
With her sister Emma, harpist, she forms the duo Aznèm. Their first CD “Kalimat” was released in December 2022.
Astrid specialises in baroque cello at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Lucia Swarts. In 2022-2023, she participated in projects of Holland Baroque.
Astrid Wauters teaches cello at the conservatories of Bruges and Ostend.
Jan Devlieger
Jan Devlieger studied at the Conservatory of his hometown Ghent, earning diplomas in chamber music, harmony, counterpoint and fugue, as well as master degrees in recorder and harpsichord. Jan Devlieger made CD recordings solo on harpsichord and with his own ensemble Les Goûts-Authentiques.
He teaches recorder, harpsichord and theory at the Municipal Conservatory of Bruges and the Music Academy of Deinze, and also works as a teacher of accompaniment practice and voices (theory and practice) at the School of Arts in Ghent.
Works and arrangements in early music styles have been published by Musica Repartita and Edition Offenburg. Jan Devlieger also writes programme supplements and gives concert introductions for deSingel.
