© Photo de Beata Szparagowska
"Sainte-Rose" is the name of a town in Guadeloupe, a colony that remained French. It’s also the name given and recognized to Gwen by her Martinican father. Gwen is therefore from her childhood surrounded by two musical cultures and a rich family structure and past. Of working-class and modest origins, his family encouraged her to start learning the cello.
She continued her cello studies in Paris and began those of musicology at Sorbonne. If these apprenticeships are very classic and conventional, Gwen likes to explore the margins and artistic versatility. This led her to study at the CFMI Paris 11 where she discovered improvisation and began to make music with everyday objects and sounds, live or recorded.
These different trainings have nourished her taste and her need for connection, sharing and public participation. As soon as she arrived in Brussels in 2008, she worked with very different audiences and contexts, both in schools with underprivileged children, and with Bozar and the ONB, for which she designed and hosted educational concerts. She invented an intergenerational sound game at MIM and guides collective sound creations at Cinéma Nova (Sound Week) and in the Vis à Vis project with BRASS.
In parallel with these educational activities, she continues improvisation (Duo Life is knife). She also collaborates as a sound designer and musician on projects like Midget!, Half Asleep and Ensemble 0. She also composes pieces for cello, synthesizers and loopstation, like "Collines", "Westende", and BRASSsss, immersive, powerful and sensitive soundscapes, Passionate about sound as well as revolted by injustice, she made her first radio documentary, "Ne pleure pas!" (2023), which through testimonies speaks of violence in children's education. In addition to directing, she creates music and sound effects.