BIOGraphies
Nathalie HOUTMAN followed a double course in piano and recorder: she obtained a first prize in piano at the Mons conservatory and also graduated with the highest distinction in recorder at the Royal Brussels Conservatory in Frédéric's class of Roos. She studied a year in Amsterdam with Walter Van Hauwe, before heading to The Hague where she obtained her Master of Music. She performed with Pastorella with whom she records the concertos grosso de Corelli, with the Les Muffati ensemble, the More Maiorum ensemble, the Alba Novella ensemble, the Laterna Magica ensemble (recording of the CD Exercitium as well as CD Opera Minima, Handel with care), the Sirocco ensemble (recording of the CD Pedrini) and again within the Apsara ensemble in a repertoire of contemporary music.
Her interest in extra European music of oral traditions led her to India with the Indian flute master Harsh Wardhan to study the Bansuri (Indian flute), in Paris with Sozan Shiaki Karya for the Shakuhachi flute (Japanese flute) as well as with François Picard for the xiao (Chinese flute).
She is the 2007 laureate of the Belgian Vocation Foundation as well as the Bonporti international competition with the Sirocco ensemble
Nathalie Houtman is an assistant to Frédéric de Roos at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.
Her interest in sound, dance, voice and their therapeutic functions led her to follow the Peter Hess, Benezon, Tama-do training.
Laura Pok was born in 1976. In 1994, she entered the Royal Conservatory of Brussels where she obtained the first prizes for harmony, counterpoint and history of music with distinction, as well as the higher diplomas in recorder (class by Frédéric de Roos), music theory and chamber music (class by Guy Van Waas, Royal Conservatory of Mons), all three with great distinction. Laura Pok performs and records with numerous ensembles (the Muffatti, the Cetra d'Orfeo, la chapelle des Minimes, La Lettera Amorosa, Sferarte, les Agrémens, Scherzi Musicali, Alba Novella Brussels Consort, Ensemble 21…). She has also performed as a soloist with the Walloon Chamber Orchestra, the Pastorella, the Chapelle de Tournai, the Brussels Orchestral Ensemble, Il Gardellino, Desafinado… She has given numerous concerts in Europe, America and Asia, as well as masterclasses. His discography includes Incipit, recorded in duet with the organist Cindy Castillo at the organ of Maredsous and Exercitium, transcriptions of Bach works and Opera Minima, Handel with care with the Laterna Magica ensemble.
Laura Pok teaches the recorder in a music academy, as well as the reading-transposition and the consort of recorders at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. She devotes her spare time to viola da gamba and cooking and is also licensed in law. She obtained a first prize in the Axion Classics competition.
After two first prizes for improvement unanimously with the congratulations of the jury in cello and chamber music at the Conservatoire National de Région de Rouen, the Franco-Dutch cellist Ronan Kernoa, already immersed very early in early music thanks to his father ( musicologist and lutenist), specializes in the practice of historical strings following internships with Claire Giardelli and Jaap ter Linden. Admitted to Philippe Foulon's class in Paris, he completed his training with Alain Gervreau at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel (Royal Conservatory of Brussels), where in 2007 he obtained a "Bachelor in de Muziek" with Distinction, and in 2009 a " Master in de Muziek” for historical cello with Great Distinction. As an insatiable curious person, he then immersed himself with passion in the study of the viola da gamba and its repertoire, first as an autodidact, then benefiting from the advice of Wieland Kuijken. Finally he returned to the KCB to devote himself to this instrument with Philippe Pierlot; in 2015, he obtained a Bachelor's degree with distinction and again a Master's degree with Great Distinction in 2018. In 2019, he was rewarded for his career on the viola da gamba and received the prestigious Ingeborg Köberle prize.
Very soon after his arrival in Belgium (in 2004), he was invited to take part in the activities, very often as a continuo player, of most Belgian "early music" ensembles such as La Petite Bande, Bach Concentus, Les Muffatti, Les Agremens, Vox Luminis, B'Rock, Scherzi Musicali, Il Gardellino, Il Fondamento… He is also sometimes present in other European ensembles including, Le Parlement de Musique, Les Arts Florissants (William Christie)…
IHe also contributes to multiple radio or television recordings around the world.
From 2018, he devoted himself intensely to the transmission of this inexhaustible source of wonder that are "early music" and their interpretations, by creating the historical cello and viola da gamba classes at the IMEP in Namur .
Raphaël COLLIGNON was born in 1979. After the first piano prize he obtained at the Paris Conservatory (CNR), his interest in keyboard improvisation in all its forms led him to study successively in Conservatories of Strasbourg, The Hague, Amsterdam and Brussels, where he won his first prizes in piano, chamber music, harpsichord, basso continuo, and jazz-improvised music.
He performs and participates in several recordings within the Philharmonic Orchestras of Strasbourg and Liège, the Concert d'Astrée, the Residentie Orkest in The Hague, the baroque orchestra "Harmony of Nations", the ensemble "Laterna Magica", "the Inventions", the "Musicians of Saint-Julien".
He was selected to give several series of concerts across Europe within the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO 2004, 2006 and 2009). He collaborated with the greatest of the current baroque scene (Ton Koopman, Jordi Savall, Chiara
Banchini, Christophe Coin, Emmanuelle Haïm, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Alfredo, Andrew Manze, François-Xavier Roth), as well as several times with live performances (dance, theater, cinema). Holder of the aggregation, Raphaël now teaches improvisation.