Born in Paris in 1997, Antoine Préat began learning the piano at the age of nine and made his debut a year later at the Salle Gaveau. After graduating with honours from the École normale de musique de Paris-Alfred-Cortot, where he studied with Ludmila Berlinskaya and Guigla Katsarava, Antoine Préat furthered his studies at the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Tatiana Sarkissova and Christopher Elton, graduating with a Master of Arts DipRAM – the highest distinction offered by the institution – and the Bach Prize. Antoine was also fascinated by early music, and studied both harpsichord and fortepiano under the guidance of Carole Cerasi, and fortepiano with Andreas Staier and Tobias Koch in Poland.

Throughout his career, Antoine Préat has been fortunate to receive additional guidance from Philippe Cassard, Cédric Pescia, Boris Berman, Pascal Rogé, Alberta Alexandrescu, Robert Levin, Jerome Lowenthal, Richard Goode, Imogen Cooper and Stephen Hough. Antoine has been invited to perform in prestigious venues including the Wigmore Hall or the St John’s Smith Square in London, the Salle Gaveau, Salle Cortot and Petit Palais in Paris, or Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, as well as festivals such as the Nohant Festival Chopin, Lisztomanias (Châteauroux), Chopin à Bagatelle, Nuits du Piano (Paris), IMS Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove and Encuentro de Santander. He has appeared on BBC Radio 3, France Musique, Scala Radio and Musiq3.

The Donnacorda string quartet saw the light of day in 2008 as a derivative from the Donnacorda string orchestra directed by Eva Vermeeren. The current members (Eva Vermeeren, Katrien De Bièvre, Liesbeth De Lombaert and Hans Van Daele) met in the former chamber orchestra “Beethoven Academie” and play together since 2017.
Collectively the members carry an education from the conservatories of Antwerp, Brussels, and the Leuven based Lemmensinstituut, in addition to renowned international schools such as the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, US), Hogeschool voor de Kunsten (Utrecht) and the Koningin Elisabeth Kapel (Brussels).
The quartet mainly covers the classical repertoire, but they do not shy away from contemporary music.

Nadia is a classically trained and very experienced flute player. With prizes and degrees from the conservatories of Brussels, Antwerp and Gent, she immerses herself in virtually any music style and delivers flawless lived through performances.
At a very young age she discovered the world of music and early on she was fascinated by recorders. She never lost her passion for them. She has played, and still plays, in many ensembles where she displays her virtuosity in a broad range of genres on the recorder, various types of tin whistles and the guitar.

Nathan Quirynen is an instrumentalist (violin) from Marche-En-Famenne (Belgium). He is mainly experienced in interdisciplinary projects, chamber music, choral music and symphonic music. He holds degrees from the Leuven based Lemmensinstituut and from the Antwerp Conservatory.

Thibaut De Bondt is a student at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp (brass department).

His interest in music started early: at 6 years old he started his journey at the school for Music and Drama in Willebroek (Belgium). He used to play the cornet before switching over to baritone, the instrument that ultimately stole his heart.

He is currently working towards an Educational Master with a view to sharing his passion with others. He embraced teaching with as much love as he has for his instrument and is currently part of the staff at schools for Music and Drama in Willebroek, Brasschaat and Mortsel.

He joined Brassband Willebroek and made his way to the first baritone seat.

In 2022 he participated in the Gran Premio Povoletto where he secured second place and in 2023 he could proudly start calling himself the first place winner of the European Soloist Competition.

During business hours, Wim is busy with lawyering (or related business roles).
After hours, he creates all sorts of melodies and arrangements, and has done this for ages.