Born into a musical family, Babette was trained as a classical pianist and cellist from an early age. She started playing the piano at the age of 4 and was taught by her father - Alain Craens - and Vinciane Meert. At the age of 14, she was discovered by Heidi Hendrickx and admitted to her Young Talent Class for pianists. Over the years, she was taught by Heidi Hendrickx, Levente Kende and Nicolas Callot. Her high school studies were completed at De!Kunsthumaniora where she played Beethoven's first piano concerto with orchestra at Amuz in Antwerp as her graduation recital.
Babette studied cello with Pieter Stas from the age of 8, and was taught at De!Kunsthumaniora by Ann Van Hecke and Jaap Kruithof jr.
Babette began her conservatory studies at the age of 17 at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, where she studied with Sergei Edelman and Eliane Rodrigues. Both bachelor's and master's degrees were completed with high distinction.
As part of her master's programme, she collaborated with Muziektheater Transparant and created a production called ‘Virginia’ with Wouter van Looy, was a repetiteur and coach in several staged productions with singers and was part of several chamber music ensembles.
Over the years, Babette became a laureate of several national piano competitions, including the Steinway Competition where she took second place.
She was also selected for several prestigious festivals, Young Talent programmes and master classes with Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden, Mi-Joo Lee, Bernd Goetzke, Daniel Blumenthal and many others.
