Hugues 
Navez

Guitar

Since 1999, Hugues Navez has been a professor of the guitar and head of the guitar department at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles–École Supérieure des Arts. He studied at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles in the classes of Ilse and Nicolas Alfonso, at the Conservatoire de Lille with Jean-Philippe Grüneissen as well as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Alexandre Lagoya (of whom he is the sole Belgian pupil) and Carel Harms.

Laureate of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, the European Prize Émile Noël of the European Union and the Frères Darches Prize of the Heritage Commission of the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, he gives recitals, concerts and master classes in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, the USA and Canada as a soloist and also performs with the harpist Susanna Mildonian, flautists Maxence Larrieu, Marc Grauwels and Denis-Pierre Gustin, the Monnaie string Quartet, the reciter Charles Kleinberg, and numerous orchestras including l’Orchestre de la Radio Télévision Belge, the Belgium National, the Orchestre National de Chambre de Toulouse and the  Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo.

He took part in the closing concert of the festivities celebrating the 60-year reign of King Baudouin at Heysel stadium and was the invited guest to the E.U. Pavilion at the World Fairs held in Seville and Shanghai. He appears regularly on foreign as well as Belgian radio and television stations and has been a regular member of the jury on the televised Jeunes Solistes and Jeunes Musiciens competitions.

In 2012, he founded the Brussels International Guitar Festival & Competitions of which he is President and Artistic Director. The 15th edition of this event, the most important guitar competition in Belgium, will take place in November 2026.

Hugues Navez is also the founding President and Artistic Director of the Brussels Guitar Concerts, the Brussels Guitar Master Classes (annual summer classes), the Brussels Classical Guitar Society and the Classical Guitar Society of Belgium. He is regularly invited to be a member of the jury in numerous national and international competitions.

To date, he has recorded five CDs and is one of the rare guitarists to play the 10 string guitar.
www.huguesnavez.be   www.conservatoire.be    www.bigfest.be

Maria
Tarasewicz

Piano

Maria Tarasewicz is a passionate chamber musician and duo pianist. She has had the privilege of working with and developing young artists, through the programs at many of the world's most renowned music conservatoires, international masterclasses as well as being a founder director of the unique project, The Thinking Musician.

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She has been invited to perform and teach in Norway, France, Italy, Jersey, San Marino, Poland, China and UK. While living in London, Maria Tarasewicz developed and delivered a unique and innovative coaching programme for string players at the Royal College of Music.

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Now based in Belgium, Maria Tarasewicz teaches piano within the Composition and Theory Departments as well as being the accompanist for numerous classes in the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles and at the Institute Royal Supérieur de Musique et de Pédagogie (IMEP) in Namur, where she is developing an innovative programme for strings. 

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Often the success of an artist is measured though diplomas, competitions, social media popularity and a busy diary. Despite having these attributes, for Maria Tarasewicz it is the joy and fulfilment of a sustainable life in music, and the transformative impact on those with whom she has worked that is the highest award she continuously receives.

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Kasia
Szychowska

Speaker

A lawyer, mother, and European by nature, she was born in Łódź, educated across three nations, and found her anchor in Brussels—adopting French as her personal continent of thought. Her world refuses to be contained by courtrooms. She is a restless traveler of both intellect and element, navigating with equal passion through the oceans of literature and music, the vertical truths of mountain peaks, and the open sea. Suspended between rigid structure and wild freedom, she embodies a deeply rooted, modern European soul.

Colin
Riley

Composition

Colin Riley's music draws on a range of elements including new technologies, improvisation, song-writing and large-scale classical form. It crosses many boundaries and I do a lot of collaborating.

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He has just released two albums. A choral album Along The Line with Pegasus chamber choir features soloists Gabriella Swallow (cello) and Gloria Rappo (harp). The Year Round is an intimate collection of songs, one for each month, created for (and with) Melanie Pappenheim.

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Important pieces include Warp and Weft a concerto for 2 cellos (Gabriella Swallow / Guy Johnston), Rock Paper Scissors (Ensemble Bash), Earth Voices (Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Sweden), and his song cycle In Place. His large-scale multi-media orchestral piece Hearing Places was recently premiered by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to excellent reviews. ‘Witty, inventive music of ear-tickling inventiveness’ (Daily Telegraph). He has also composed a huge body of piano music, some of which has just be released on Matthew Schellhorn’s new album Odd Sympathies.

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His latest work is Broken Line (string quartet and fixed media) for the RIOT Ensemble, incorporating AI and the song of the blackbird.

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Another album Ocean Songs is due out in the spring; a collaboration with lead singer of Goat Girl Lottie P. It features writer/activist George Monbiot and scientist/writer Helen Czerski, and one of several projects from his production company (with Violist Nic Pendlebury), Sonic Collaborations. He is also currently recording an album of chamber music ‘Ones Twos and Threes’ supported by the PRS for Music’s Composers Fund, the Hinrichsen Foundation and the Vaughan Williams Foundation

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Colin runs his own label Squeaky Kate and writes a regular blog about composing, teaching (and other things) called Riley Notes. He is also a member of the Place Collective.

Mark
Messenger

Violin

Anglo-Armenian violinist, Mark Messenger, has had a broad and varied career resulting in a global reputation as soloist, chamber musician, conductor, teacher, jury member, speaker and consultant.

His love of music and the human connection it offers has meant he has shared the concert platform with many remarkable musicians. For over four decades he performed on some of the most prestigious concert platforms in the world as a string quartet and chamber musician, recitalist, concerto soloist, orchestral leader and conductor. He is privileged to have appeared with great international artists such as Lord Yehudi

Menuhin, Ivy Gitlis, Maxim Vengerov, Bernard Greenhouse, Natalie Clein, Raphael Wallfisch, Yonty Solomon, Howard Shelley, John Lill, Michael Collins, David Campbell, Chris Garrick and Sir John Dankworth.

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As a quartet player, for many decades Mark Messenger has toured and performed with the Bochmann String Quartet, immersing himself deeply in the spiritual and transformative world of great string quartet repertoire, unlocking the secrets of truly intuitive and spontaneous chamber music performance. Mark has appeared internationally as a soloist, and as a duo recitalist with his long-time musical and life partner, pianist Maria Tarasewicz.

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He has led symphony and chamber orchestras, opera and ballet companies including the Bolshoi Ballet and the European Camber Opera. Other performing highlights have been as a studio musician and conductor, including recording soundtracks for Hollywood Films and rock and pop albums and conducting two of the iconic Ayoub Sisters albums. In the 1980s and 1990s he toured extensively with his own innovative jazz/rock group, Mercury Jazz.

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He has appeared as a jury member for many international competitions in Europe, South East Asia, America and the UK. He is also much in demand as a speaker, mentor and consultant for educational projects.

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However, it is teaching that is Mark Messenger’s main passion. His ability to build both technical assurance and artistic integrity has contributed to his students’ many and varied successful international careers as chamber musicians, soloists, principal players in major orchestras and innovators within the music industry. His unique and insightful guidance, and the demands he places on his students to continue searching and examining the repertoire have proved to be transformative. He has been invited to give masterclasses in great institutions throughout the world.

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For over two decades he taught violin and chamber music at the Royal College of Music in London where he was also the head of department. Here he also founded and was the artistic director and conductor of the RCM String Band, an innovative ensemble whose alumni include some of the world’s most dynamic and original musicians. His educational philosophy underpins the ethos and impact of The Thinking Musician music programme of which he is a Co-founder and Artistic Director.

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As long as his exploration of life and music continues to provide such human experiences, he will continue the journey with travelling companions from any walk of life and in any nation of the world.