About the BCE

Clio started her musical education studying piano and flute under Carmen-Elena Rotaru and Denis-Pierre Gustin.

She obtained her Piano Licentiate Diploma from Trinity College London with distinction and won multiple awards for both instruments.

Clio discovered conducting during a workshop organised by the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and followed multiple conducting masterclasses, amongst others at Julliard School Extension.

Aside from working with the BCE, Clio is currently the Principal Conductor of the Association Philharmonique d’Uccle, Assistant Director to the Brussels Choral Society (Belgium’s largest amateur choir), and also conducts BachWerk chamber choir and ensemble on a rolling basis.

Laura is a violinist and serial tech entrepreneur with over 20 years of leadership experience across 25+ countries. A prize-winning musician who has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Berlin Philharmonie, she combines artistic excellence with strong business acumen. Laura holds degrees from Yale (Music), MIT (MBA), and a BA in Economics.

She was CEO of Care.com’s international business and has founded startups and nonprofits focused on ethical labor and cross-border job creation. Named a “Top 40 under 40” in Germany and Boston, she now lives in Brussels, where she serves as Executive Director and Concertmaster of the Brussels Chamber Ensemble.

Hiroshi is an amateur violinist and owner-manager of Objectified srl, a Brussels-based B2B agency specializing in promotional products for international clients since 2017. Born in Paris to Japanese-Cambodian parents, he has lived in Belgium since 1986. He began violin lessons at the age of six and later pursued studies in business engineering.

Deeply committed to both music and entrepreneurship, Hiroshi plays in the second violin section of the Brussels Chamber Ensemble and also serves on its board of directors. He lives in Brussels with his wife, Gaëlle Delmée, and their three children.

Despoina is a classically trained cellist and legal professional who has worked at the Legal Service of the Council of the EU and, most recently, at the European Commission.

Raised in Thessaloniki, Greece, she began cello and piano at age six and later trained under renowned cellist D. Gudimov. As a young performer, she won multiple national competitions and was selected to play with leading professional orchestras in Greece. She holds diplomas in cello performance, music theory, and harmony—all with highest distinction—and has participated in international masterclasses with top cellists from Europe and the U.S.. Her advanced studies took her to the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where she studied cello performance.

In parallel, she completed legal studies with distinction in Greece and the Netherlands, specialising in EU law.

She continues to combine her legal and musical backgrounds as both performer and ensemble leader, bringing a deep commitment to collaboration, artistic excellence, and cross-cultural dialogue to every project.

Martin started playing trumpet at the age of 11 and completed his musical training with the gold performance badge of the Austrian Wind Music Association on the trumpet (2007) and the bugle (2009).

He did his military service with the Salzburg Military Band and played with several orchestras on his career path, including the Academic Symphonic Orchestra in Vienna, the Young Symphonic Orchestra in Frankfurt and the various ensembles in London.

Martin has been a member of the Brussels Chamber Ensemble from day one and eager to contribute to this orchestra that unites so many different communities that are living together here in Brussels.

Ina has played the violin since she was 5 years old, first for Marja Korpela and then Grazyna Zeranska-Gebert.

She has also played in various orchestras in her native country Finland (most notably the Tapiola Youth Symphony Orchestra) and elsewhere (i.a. Orkester Norden and Orchestra Sinfonica del Festival di Chioggia) and participated in Masterclasses i.a. in Bled (Slovenia), Chioggia (Italy) and Kuhmo (Finland).

First violins:
Laura Esnaola (cm), Julian Bartoli, Stephanie Hoi Yan Chan, Isabelle Combes, Muriel Delale, Violeta Fernández Torres, Haruna Hosokawa, Emese Kárpáti, Noémie Nemry, Aina Martí Soler, Wiebke Pankauke, Paulina Parol, Dorothee Starck, Guillaume Tillema

Second violins:
Vanessa di Fine, Paulina Bury, Orla Daly, Annie Rose Deegan, Niccolò Fantini, Simon-Marin Ghys, Marsilius Mues, Judit Krommer, Hiroshi Loeurng, Thomas McShane, Tania Schröter

Violas:
Lucía Alonso Hernández, Sofia Capraro, Katelijn Deknopper, Sophia Grünwald, Ismael Hamido Ortega, Anne-Clara Meister, Sam Wijnbergen, Minghui Yu

Celli:
Beatriz Munhá Correia, Louise Dieudonné, Céline Gauer, Géraldine Coop-Dennilauler, Blanca Sánchez Guillén, Ruben Ravier, Angeliki Maria Rizopoulou, Eva van Ooij

Double bass:
Kevin Conru, Anne Good, Mattia Massolini

Flutes:
Mark Iakovlev, Helen Coyne-Wincott

Oboes:
Joel Gutiérrez, Kamil Karpiak

Clarinets:
Leidy Méndez, Abby Tress

Bassoons:
Marcello Gianandrea, Pierre Dubuisson

Horns:
Alexander Bosch Berth, David Escolá, Paul Litterio, Jöran Westerbeek

Trumpets:
Maria Batista, Chris Rawden

Trombone:
Arnau Chacón Albero, Luca Faghel, Guann-Tyng Ho

Percussion:
Hugo Delhaye, Mark Beamish

Harp:
Rita Silva