One of Belgium's young generation of guitarists, Johan Fostier has been a laureate in a number of leading international guitar contests, taking first prize in Eindhoven in 1998, in Mottola the following year, and at the De Bonis Contest in Cosenza, where he also won the audience prize. He won third prize at the Alhambra Contest in Alcoy in Spain in 2000 and a special interpretation prize at the Printemps de la Guitare in Walcourt in 1998. He was also fourth finalist at the Philippos Nakas Contest in Athens in 1997. In October 2001, he was awarded first prize at the International Solo Guitar Competition of the Guitar Foundation of America in San Diego, California, by the jury's unanimous decision.
Johan Fostier's professional activities regularly bring him to concert platforms in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Holland, and Germany, as well as the United States and Canada, both as a soloist and chamber musician. He has worked with the soprano Evelyne Bohen (Almaviva Duo), in a guitar duo with Delphine Bertrand, with guitarists Pia Grees, Matthias Klager, and Luc Vander Borght in the Take Four Guitar Quartet, and with the Chamber Music Group 'Emanon,' which is dedicated to Belgian music. He has appeared as a soloist inthe Netherlands, the Orchestre National de Belgique, Prima La Musica Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Wallonie, Orchestre du Conservatoire de Bruxelles.
In November 2001, he gave the first performance in Belgium of Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Platero y yo, in French, together with the actor and director Vincent DuJardin. Fostier holds a diploma from the Brussels Royal Conservatoire of Music in guitar, pedagogy, and chamber music, and he studied further at the Ecole Normale Superieure de Musique in Paris under Alberto Ponce and at the Conservatoire of Fribourg with Joaquim Freire and Susanne Mebes. He has also studied during international training periods with Eduardo Isaac, Nigel North, and David Starobin, and has attended master-classes by Manuel Barrueco and David Russel. His musical thinking has been especially marked by his meeting with the musician, teacher, and director Guy Van Waas.
