Tom Pauwels (Bornem, Belgium, 1974) studied classical guitar in Brussels, Köln and Münster with Albert Sundermann, Hubert Käppel and Reinbert Evers respectively.
In 1995, during his studies at the Brussels Conservatory, he was involved in the founding of Black Jackets Company, a Brussels collective of composers and performers. Ever since these early experiments he has been active in the field of contemporary music, both on classical and electric guitar. From 1999 until 2001 he was a regular member of Champ D’Action, the Antwerp-based ensemble for experimental music. Since 2002 he has works as a co-artistic leader for the new music ensemble ICTUS (Brussels). Project-wise, he performs with the London based Plus-Minus ensemble. He has recorded works by Craenen, Lachenmann, Shlomowitz, Van Eycken, Guiraud and for Cyprès (Ictus) works by Oehring, Harada, Romitelli and Aperghis. More recently he released work by Pierluigi Billone on Kaïros (with guitarist Yaron Deutsch) and works by Trapani and Polansky (with Ictus and Liesa Van der Aa) on Sub Rosa.

After a five year research project on new music for guitar he became a ‘Laureate of the Orpheus Institute’ with the thesis ‘De Echo van ‘t Saluut’. Between 2002 and 2017 he has been in charge of teaching new music for guitar at the Conservatory of Gent where he has developed an advanced master program with emphasis on contemporary chamber music in collaboration with the Spectra ensemble and Ictus. Today he is part of the Music Faculty of P.A.R.T.S (School for contemporary dance in Brussels).

His broad interest in performance has led to collaborations with choreographers as Xavier Le Roy (see ‘Mouvements für Lachenmann), Andros Zins-Browne (The Funerals) and Maud Le Pladec (see ‘Professor’, 'Poetry' 'Concrete' and 'counting stars with you').