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.

 

In June she graduated from her 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. Maya’s playing was aready rewarded with several prizes in Greece, Spain, Russia, the Netherlands and Begium. In 2023 she recieved the first prize at Twent guitar festival in the Netherland. Most recently she revieded the second prize at Antwerpen gitaarfestival in November and the second prize at Rust gitarren festival in Austria in April. Most recently she won the 3rd prize at the international gitarrenfestival in Nuertingen.
 

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