Simon Diricq studied the saxophone at the Conservatoire Royal in Mons, the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional in Versailles, and the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne. He completed his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris. First Laureate of the 5th Adolphe Sax International Competition (Dinant, 2010), he has also impressed at many other competitions: First Prize in the Belfi us Classics Competition (Brussels, 2002), the Competition for Young Saxophonists (Dinant, 1999 and 2003), and the Concours de Nantes (2004); Second Prize in the Tarragona Competition (2004) and the Rotary International Competition (Lille, 2005); Premier Prix d’Honneur at the Ufam (Paris, 2006), Laureate of the PACEM IN TERRIS International Music Competition (Bayreuth, 2007), First Prize in the Concurso de Saxofón Villa de Benidorm (2010), etc. He has performed as a soloist with the Liège Royal Philharmonic, the Royal Band of the Belgian Air Force, the Royal Symphonic Band of the Belgian Guides, the Orchestre de Chambre de Wallonie, Het Kamerorkest Brugge, the Ensemble Orchestral de Bruxelles, the Orchestre de la Chapelle Musicale de Tournai, the Johan Willem Friso Royal Netherlands Army Band, and the Plauen-Zwickau Philharmonic and has also played in the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Ensemble Multilatérale, and the Musiques Nouvelles ensemble. For some years now, he has played with the Belgian pianist Flavien Casaccio in many of Europe’s fi nest venues, including the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. As a chamber musician, he is also a member of the Alcatrasax quartet and of the Ensemble Squillante, which is made up of nine saxophonist graduates of the Paris Conservatory and which, for its second disc – Spaccata, released in late 2012 – collaborated with the German trombonist and composer Daniel Casimir. Simon Diricq, who has been made an honorary citizen of the city of Dinant, the birthplace of Adolphe Sax, is currently Saxophone Professor at the Conservatoire in Tournai and an Assistant Professor at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels.
