Bram Invites

Mona Verhas (violin) & Wouter Valvekens (piano)

Bram de Vree: “Mona and Wouter belong to the top of the new generation of Belgian musicians. They have each already traveled an impressive path and regularly join forces. Mona and Wouter are really musicians to my taste; This will be a beautiful and refined interplay at the highest level.”

Mona Verhas

A Belgian violinist. She studied with Alissa Margulis at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp and with Erik Schumann at the Hochschule für Musik Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main. Mona has participated in master classes with grandmasters such as Midori Goto, Miriam Fried, Pavel Vernikov, Dora Schwarzberg, Renaud Capucon, Philippe Graffin, Barnabas Kelemen and Julia Fischer. She has performed as a soloist with some of Belgium's leading orchestras, including the Brussels Philharmonic and the Flanders Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician she has participated in numerous chamber music festivals, such as the West Cork Chambermusic Festival, the Rheingau Musik Festival and the Storioni Festival. In 2019 she founded her own string quartet, the Sonoro Quartet, which was coached by members of the Quatuor Danel, the Quatuor Ebène and Eberhard Feltz. The Sonoro Quartet won third prize and two special prizes at the Bartók 2021 international competition in Budapest. Mona won the position as co-principal second violin in 2021 and co-concertmaster of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra in 2023. She plays a violin by François Pique from 1805.

Wouter Valvekens

A Belgian concert pianist. He was invited to perform in several countries in Europe, and in the USA, in solo recitals and as a soloist with orchestra. In 2020 he made his recital debut in the Singel Antwerp and in the Henri Le Boeufzaal of BOZAR Brussels. In 2023 he made his debut at the Concertgebouw Brugge. His debut album 'Masques' was released in 2023 and received rave reviews. This album could be realized with the financial support of SWUK Flanders, where Wouter Valvekens became a laureate in 2023. Wouter Valvekens received his first piano lessons at the age of six at the Municipal Conservatory of Mechelen, where he studied with Rita Degraeuwe. He subsequently studied with Polina Leschenko at the Antwerp Conservatory, with Ian Fountain at the Royal Academy of Music in London and historical instruments with Piet Kuijken at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. Wouter Valvekens followed master classes with András Schiff, Imogen Cooper, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Richard Goode, Klaus Hellwig and Eldar Nebolsin, among others. He is supported by the Winifred Christie Trust Award and by Inspiratum vzw. The London Hattori Foundation presented him with a Senior Award.