Biography
Belgian guitarist Jerome Mouffe has toured throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. Highlight performances include recitals for Omni Concert Series in San Francisco, Austin Classical Guitar, the International Brussels Guitar Festival, Festival del Noreste in Saltillo, Mexico, La Guitarra California Festival, the Mid-Maryland Guitar Festival, and Boston GuitarFest, among others. In 2009, Jerome was invited to perform at the Agustin Barrios Mangore Festival in Brussels, where he shared the stage with Eliot Fisk, his teacher and mentor. Jerome has performed for Boston’s public radio WBUR; his performances and recordings were also broadcast on Belgian national public radios Musiq3 and Klara.
Jerome frequently performs with guitar phenomenon Grisha Goryachev, and flautist Ben Smolen. Jerome has performed concerti with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Sonora in Mexico, and the Symphony by the Sea. Jerome’s debut recording—Capriccio— was recorded on the VGo Recordings label in 2009. The album features early nineteenth century virtuoso Italian music. It includes caprices by Regondi, Legnani, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and transcriptions of Paganini’s famous violin capricci for solo guitar.
In September 2013, Jerome joined the String Department Faculty at New England Conservatory in Boston. Jerome also serves on the faculty of Bridgewater State University (MA) where he teaches a private studio class, as well as general studies courses. In addition, Jerome has been invited to teach masterclasses or lecture at various universities including University of Texas Austin, Umass Boston, San Jose State University (CA), University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (WI), Dalhousie University (Canada), University of Sonora (Mexico), Sonoma State University (CA), and Montgomery College (MD). Jerome presented a lecture/recital about improvisation in early nineteenth century guitar repertoire at the 2013 College Music Society National Conference.
Jerome was the first guitarist to ever receive a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the New England Conservatory of Boston. His doctoral dissertation analyzes how collaboration between composer and soloist achieved an optimization of the guitar’s capabilities in Robert Beaser’s Guitar Concerto (2009). Jerome earned his Master of Music degree magna cum laude at age 20 at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, studying with Hugues Navez. He then earned a Postgraduate Diploma at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, studying with the renowned maestri Eliot Fisk and Ricardo Gallen. He performed for masterclasses with David Russell, Angel Romero, Pepe Romero, Emmanuel Rossfelder, Joaquin Clerch, and Pavel Steidl, among others. He also studied flamenco with the Spanish guitarist Antonio Segura in Brussels. Based in the Boston area, Jerome maintains an active private guitar studio made up of talented young guitarists and advanced adult players.