Maya Descheemaeker Biography

When Maya Descheemaeker was seven years old, her cousin introduced her to the guitar. It only had two strings but with one finger Maya figured out how to play Smoke on the Water. That Christmas, she received an instrument with six strings and the journey began. She entered the Kunsthumaniora Arts School in Antwerp and by the age of 17, she performed the first and second movement of the Villa Lobos Guitar concerto with the school orchestra.

 

Whether conveying the colour and heat of Spanish music, the melancholic character of Latin-American music, or the pure joy that comes from performing Jazz Standards, the ability to tell a story through the guitar is what captivates and feeds Maya’s soul.

 

She is currently studying for a Postgraduate with Antigoni Goni at Koninklijk conservatorium in Bruxelles. She recieved her masters degree at Fontys Academy of the Arts where she studied under Johan Fostier.

 

In 2019 she won the first prize at IkebanaFIM in Oviedo, Spain. She also won a third prize in the Golden Age of Guitar Competition in the category 16-20 years old, and a third prize at the first international Nikita Koshkin Competition for young guitarist in the category 18-21. In May 2023 she recieved a 1st prize at the Twents guitar festival in the Netherlands and in november of the same year she won 2nd place at the Antwerpen gitaarfestival. Her playing has been described by the Festival Horizon Guitare, “C'est avec une délicatesse doublée d'une grande présence scénique qu'elle done vie a son repertoire” (it’s with a delicacy coupled with a great stage presence that she brings her repertoire to life).

 

One of Maya’s current musical projects is a collaboration with writer, Lien Vervoort. The two are combining poetry and the music of Frederic Mompou, creating a story of the composer as he walks through life where each movement of Suite Compostelana representing a new chapter.

 

“Thank you for your authentic, moving, entertaining, sensuous, stylish, colorful, connected and virtuosic performance...you're an artist and a name to remember...”

~ Johan Fostier