Nathalie Houtman and Laura Pok have been playing together since childhood. They studied the recorder at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in the class of Frédéric de Roos of whow they are currently assistants. After their studies they founded Laterna Magica, an ensemble which specializes in the interpretation of music from the 17th and 18th centuries. In 2013, they decided to embark on more creative projects. This is how the show "Face à Face" was born, which has been played fifty times since 2014 and has been received with enthusiasm. The show is included in the belgian "Jeunesses musicales" 2014-2015 tour.

 

Their second show, "Souvent femme varie ..." , declines the theme of variations of all kinds by mixing theater and music. For this show, the duo Laterna Magica works with the director Eléonore Meeùs and the choreographer Jean-Luc Yerlès.

 

The program “Tandem”, an ode to transcription, was hosted at the Misiones of Chiquitos international festival in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. It was also performed as part of the Semaine de la Francophonie 2017 in Brazil.

 

The duo collaborate each year with the Pondicherry Flute Quartett , with whom they organize a concert tour in Pondicherry and Auroville. In 2018, Nathalie and Laura produced the documentary "Inspire the flute" , recounting the extraordinary story of these Indian recorder players.

 

The duo Laterna Magica aims to expand the repertoire for two recorders, thanks to the multiple transcriptions, the original compositions and the openness to non-European music. Thus, the “Ombre et lumière” program offers a poetic incursion into traditional and contemporary Japanese music for shakuhachi and recorder.