Rik Ghesquière, a many-sided and dynamic artist, is known as a stimulating and sensitive conductor.

TRAINING

He started his training in 1980 as a student of Léon Petré in the Lemmensinstituut of Leuven (Belgium). In 1985, he graduated summa cum laude as a trumpet and chamber music laureate.
In 1987, he obtained the Higher Certificate of trumpet at the Conservatory of Ghent, where he was taught by Dirk Brossé.
After this, also in 1987, he got the Certificate of Executive Musician at the Conservatory of Rotterdam, where he worked under the direction of Theo Mertens.

SPECIALISATION

Rik Ghesquière deepened his training with trumpet pedagogy master classes taught by Bo Nielsen, Adolf Herset and Maurice André. He took counterpoint - and harmony classes with respectively Jan Hadermann and Jan Van Der Roost and, by doing this, came into contact with the world of HaFaBra, which stimulated his interest in conducting.

ORCHESTRAL CONDUCTING

From 1997 onwards, Rik Ghesquière studied at the Conservatory of Brussels in Norbert Nozy’s class, where he obtained the certificate HaFaBra conducting in 1999. He broadened this training by taking orchestral conducting classes with Lucas Vis (well-known for his meticulous stroke techniques) and with Frank Shipway (sound idiom according to the principles of his mentor, Herbert von Karajan). In order to be able to master the techniques of the strings, he took five years of cello classes with Luc Tooten at the Conservatory of Mechelen.

He took classes of jazz harmonization with Freddy Sunder and of jazz improvisation with Peter Verbraken. With the purpose of deepening his knowledge of ancient music, Rik currently takes cornet classes with Marleen Lercher.

CAREER

Since 1985, Rik Ghesquière has been member of the then VRT Philharmonic Orchestra (now known as the Brussels Philharmonic – het Vlaams Radio Orkest).

From 1997 onwards, he has turned mostly to conducting. Through Jeugd en Muziek, he invests in the training of young people in youth orchestras and this is how, since 2003, he has been the permanent conductor of the Limburgs Orkest Jeugd en Muziek.

Likewise, he is the inspiring conductor of the Vlaams-Brabants Symfonie Orkest, the Roosendaels Symfonie Orkest, the Roosendaals Gemengd Koor and the professional brass ensemble The Art of Brass.

Download Rik Ghesquière’s CV