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Maarten Vandenbemden, teacher
maarten.vandenbemden@hogent.be

Born in a house full of guitars, Maarten Vandenbemden (1994) received his first guitar lessons from his father. Thirteen years later, his path led to Antigoni Goni's class at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where he obtained the masters in guitar and music writing "summa cum laude". As a soloist and with several orchestras, he played at Bozar (Brussels) and the Royal Palace of Caserta, among others, and from Jordan to China. Out of a particular fondness for chamber music, he regularly plays with sopranos Noémie Schellens and Kelly Poukens, with cellist Ann Van Hecke and in the colourful line-up of two tenors and two guitars as "Los Reyes de la Baraja". Since 2018, Maarten has been the fourth member of the Four Aces guitar quartet, with which he will record a second album entirely dedicated to Belgian music in 2022 after the earlier Tabula Rasa. 

With pianist Saskia Van Herzeele, he forms duo Adentro, a 2018 Supernova finalist and winner of the Chamber Music Prize at the Twenthe Guitar Festival (NL). Their first CD "Once upon a time" was released by Etcetera in December and was voted one of the 10 favourite albums of the year by American Classical Guitar Magazine in 2019.

Courtesy of Beeldenstorm vzw, their second album will be released in late 2021. "Paris. Les années folles" is entirely dedicated to the music of the earlier 1920s. Maarten teaches applied and written harmony and is coordinator of the music domain in the Educational Master at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, and teaches classical guitar at KASK & Conservatorium. Since 2016, Maarten has also been actively involved in the Volterra Project, an innovative summer guitar course, and in Music Projects for Brussels, an organisation that brings Brussels children, patients and inmates into contact with classical music....