PENSON Guy
Guy Penson was born in Ronse (Belgium) in 1958.
After having finished his piano studies with C.C. Coppens and the harpsichord with Johan Huys at the Royal Conservatoire of Ghent, he has built up a solid reputation as a musician in Belgium and abroad.
He distinguished himself in various international competitions, a.o. the famous harpsichord contest of Bruges in 1980.
Very much in demand as a harpsichord performer and a great specialist of the ' basso continuo ' (figured bass) he appeared with various remarkable ensembles and orchestras at the most important Belgian and European music festivals (France, Holland, Scandinavia, Rumania, Russia, Great Britain, Germany etc), as well as in Canada, the U.S.A. and Japan.
Besides his solo recitals he mainly performs in duet or trio formation. Among his favourite partners we should mention the flutists Frédéric de Roos, Patrick De Necker, Geert Van Gele, Tomma Wessel and Patrick Beuckels, the hoboists Paul Dombrecht and Marcel Ponseele, the violinists Florence Malgoire and Dirk Vandaele, the gamba-player Sophie Watillon and the lute-player Philippe Malfeyt.
Above all he has a perdilection for the repertoire for two harpsichords. As this is rather limited, Guy Penson made a number of arrangements of works by J.S. Bach, such as the 3rd and the 6th Brandenburg concertos. His chosen partners for this repertoire are Johan Huys and the Japanese Mutsuko Miwa.
Moreover Guy Penson is frequently heard on the piano or the pianoforte as an exquisite accompanyist for singers, especially with the soprano Greta de Reyghere and the tenor Guy de Mey.
In 1986 he formed a piano duet with Sylvia Bernier. Together they have built up a fine repertoire for four-handed piano as well as for two pianos and have played numerous concerts in Belgium, Germany, Japan and Latin America. They realized a recording of Mozart's complete works for four-handed piano and for two keyboards on the tangent piano ('Tangentenflügel') and a C.D. with transcriptions for keyboard instruments of works by A.M. Grétry.
Guy Penson has recorded an impressive number of CD's, for various labels (Ricercar, Polydor, Vox Temporis, RGIP, Hyperion, Passacaille, Musique en Wallonie) with ensembles such as ' Il Fondamento ', Ex Tempore, Flanders Recorder Quartet and I Fiamminghi.
His solo recordings, especially those of the concertos and keyboard works by W.F. Bach, (edited by Ricercar) were highly praised by the belgian and international press.
Guy Penson is piano-accompanyist at the Conservatoire and at the academy of music in Ghent.