Marie trained at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles where she obtained her degree with distinction in the class of Thérèse-Marie Gilissen. She continued her studies at the Koninklijk Conservatorium van Brussel in the class of Paul de Clerck where she obtained her master's degree with distinction. She then went on to perfect her skills in the class of Vincent Hepp at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles where she obtained a second master's degree.
Marie was a member of the Akhtamar Quartet and then the Arca Quartet, and joined the Young Belgian Strings from 2014 to 2017. She broadened her horizons by following Kris Defoort's free improvisation course. From the diversity of her interests was born the Duo Dilemme whose goal is to transmit to any audience the benefits of classical music as well as popular music by combining pieces by stylistic themes common to both genres.
Since 2016 Marie has played in various classical orchestras and ensembles such as: National Orchestra of Belgium, Brussels Chamber Orchestra, Musiq'3 Festival Orchestra, Bruges Chamber Orchestra, Ataneres.
Marie also plays in original ensembles combining classical music and other genres such as Pauline Leblond in the Pauline Leblond Double Quartet, Lorenzo Di Maio trio with the UFO quartet (quartet created by Fabian Fiorini), Free Desmyster in the project "Takenouchi Document's", Olivier Thomas in the project "sans voix en l'air", Angelo Grégorio with the projects "DAS700" and "Orchestra Limadou", Fil Caporali in the trio "Moon Souvenirs".
Marie founded the project "Bluesy Mary" in 2022.
Pianist and violinsit, born in 1993 in Liège. Julien Gillain follows a classical and then jazz curriculum in Belgian académies from an early age. In 2012, he's accepted at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in both piano and violin (jazz section). He graduates with Master degrees in 2017 in both instruments receiving the PlayRight+ award. During his curriculum in Brussels, his mentors are inter alia, Eric Legnini, Vincent Bruyninckx, Françoise Derissen and Arnould Massart. He also has the privilege to follow masterclasses such as from Wynton Marsalis, Peter Erskine, Jeff Ballard and Pete Churchill between others. He then graduates with a Didactic Master in 2018. One year later, he has the chance to take classes with Aaron Parks and Aaron Goldberg in New York City.
He performs in various European countries and in the Brussels region in particular with different projects, both on piano and violin but also occasionally on Hammond organ. Various bands in which he's very active are for example: “Reverent Juke”, “Pauline Leblond Double Quartet”, “Ceci n'est pas un trio”, “Archilpel”, “Willem Suilen Ensemble”. He also regularly performs in string quartets on various projects whether on stage or in studio. In 2022, he joins the Orchestra Vivo!
Trumpet, cornet and flugelhorn player, Pauline Leblond is a musician from Normandy. She studied classical and jazz trumpet at the “Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional” in Nantes for nearly ten years until obtaining her D.E.M (Diploma of Musical Studies). Pauline Leblond became interested in classical music writing, harmony, chamber and orchestral music as well as jazz music, which became her specialty. In her curriculum, she was also taught dance and studied art history and archaeology. She entered the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in 2011 in the jazz section, then the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel where she graduated with a Master degree in Jazz Trumpet in 2016. She also took an interest in teaching music and obtained her “Agrégation” (Belgian didactic degree) in 2017. Pauline currently teaches rhythm classes as well as she gives workshops aside from her international jazz musician career.
Pauline took part in various projects with diverse music styles in Nantes (from South American music, to Breton music, amplified music, classical music, as a soloist, in chamber music, in orchestra, ...).
Now based in Brussels, she has performed in several musicals such as “Cabaret”, “The Sound of Music”, “Evita” or “Sunset Boulevard” as well as with “Les Baladins du Miroir” and on other theater shows. Today Pauline mainly plays in Europe with very diverse ensembles.
Filippe Caporali, double bassist and composer from São Paulo, Brazil. Awarded the Toots Thielemans Jazz Award in 2016. He holds a bachelor's degree from Universidades Integradas Cantareira, São Paulo (2009-2012), a master's degree from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (2014-2016), a post-master's degree from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (2016-2018) and is currently working on his doctorate at the Free University of Brussels / Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel.
Fil's current projects include Fil Caporali 5tet, Commander Spoon, Marie Fikry Oriental Jazz Project, Pauline Leblond Double Quartet, Synestet, Moanin' Birds, Aishinka, Via Toledo Jazz Quartet, Vestige and Nascente. He toured Europe, the United Kingdom, China, Taiwan, Panama and Brazil and has played in concert halls and festivals such as the Thrill Jazz Festival (Jazz Bar - Edinburgh), Brussels Jazz Festival (Flagey - Brussels), Festival Radio France de Montpellier, Jammin' Jazz Tales (Auditorium Parco Della Musica - Rome), PIC Télémaque (Marseille).
Bluesy Mary is a quartet/quartet (viola, trumpet, double bass, piano/violin) composed of musicians trained at classical and jazz music conservatories.
With Pauline Leblond on trumpet/flugelhorn, Julien Gillain on piano and violin, Fil Caporali on double bass and myself (Marie Ghitta) on violin/alto, we have come together to propose music at the crossroads of the classical and jazz worlds, but with the particularity of starting from the repertoire of classical music.
The project began with a piece we produced for a video clip to promote our participation in the Brosella Festival with the Pauline Leblond Double Quartet. With Pauline, we wanted to explore the close link between Bach's harmony and jazz harmony. For this we used the allemande from Bach's partita no. 2 as a basis for our work.
Afterwards I proposed a streaming concert with the theme Bach and Jazz. In addition to the allemande, we arranged excerpts from Bach's orchestral suite no. 3. We had a varied audience for this streaming, jazz lovers, classical music lovers or neither. One comment from the concert made a particular impression on me: "I don't usually like Bach, but I liked it here!" It was a wake-up call for me, I thought that if we could make people appreciate great musicians by taking them out of their usual interpretation framework, it would be a great way to pass on our musical heritage.
We continued to experiment, again with Bach, then with other classical composers. With these other composers we had to do a lot more research to be able to link them to the jazz world. The latter is very vast and varied, just like the world of classical music. For example, we had to look for the impressionist universe of Bill Evans to merge with Jules Massenet. The colours of Miles Davis's Blue in Green combine wonderfully with Schubert's Ständchen. Nat King Cole's ballads with Fauré's Après un rêve.
And so Bluesy Mary was born. We played at Queens Brussels and then at The Music Village. In these two very different atmospheres, the feedback was very positive. The varied audience discovered how close the worlds of jazz and classical music can be. The freshness brought by our arrangements to a repertoire that is often performed in the same way was much appreciated. The freedom of the accompaniments and the improvisations made it possible to highlight the fact that the classical repertoire is not always as rigid as it may seem. The oral presentations were appreciated and helped to understand the links between these two musical worlds.
This is exactly what Bluesy Mary aims to do: to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, from the informed to the uninitiated. We propose a repertoire that is easy to access, but with a well thought-out and well-constructed work beforehand. Our formula can be adapted to a "classical" concert format as well as a "jazz" concert format. For our concert at the Queens, we adopted a classical music concert format, for our concert at the Music Village, we adopted a jazz concert format, with two 45-minute sets. We prefer to play acoustically but amplification is possible. We played acoustic at the Queens and amplified at The Music Village.