Marieke Van Ransbeeck has roots in the Belgian folk music scene as a musician, music pedagogue and organiser. She began playing the bagpipe at the age of eight in Gooik, Flanders, with her teacher Jean-Pierre Van Hees. Passing through Ethno Flanders as a teenager she understood for certain her calling as a musician. Like Hans Christian Andersen puts it: “Where words fail, music speaks”. In 2013, Van Ransbeeck got the opportunity to study a master in Flemish bagpipes and baroque musette at the early music departement of LUCA School of Arts in Leuven.
After Marieke graduated in 2017, she wanted to deepen herself more into folk music. That is why she continued her studies with the “Nordic Master in Folk Music”. This study took her around the Nordic countries for two years, where she studied at the folk departments of the Kungliga Musikhögskolan in Stockholm, the Syddansk Musikkonservatorium in Esbjerg, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the Ole Bull Akademiet in Voss. Currently Marieke is working as a freelance musician in several folk and baroque projects like the international band “Farandi” and her own project “Van Ransbeeck Band”.
Francesco Emanuele
Graduated in classical guitar, he is a guitar teacher, music producer and composer. Since his early age he plays jazz, Irish folk music and pop music in many important folk festivals around Italy and across Europe with a few important artists like Carmelo Salemi,...