My relationship to music
Since I can remember, I have always had a close relationship to specific music that was available to me. I remember keeping a box of my favorite CD’s as an infant, which I played whenever I was in the right mood. I remember for example Buena Vista Social Club being next to Schubert’s A minor sonata (masterfully played by Alfred Brendel) and a compilation of Toots Thielemans’ more commercial work. In a way nothing has changed because all this music is still valuable to me, and I make no distinction between different styles and music from different time periods. There is only good and bad music within every style. What has changed, is the size of the pool of music that could be listened to, played, or performed. As I have become older, it has been an interesting experience to be able to map more and more of the common threads that go from one type of music to another. This process has been (and probably will be) my focus.
Furthermore, In a world where everything and everybody is as connected as ever in a material sense but as disconnected as ever, in a spiritual sense, music can play an important role. Because of its abstract nature, two otherwise very different people, could have a shared experience while listening to the same music. After the performance they could share their thoughts with one another, and more importantly, it would be very easy for them to agree to disagree.
Bio
I was born in 1995 in Waregem and lived in Gent for the first part of my life. I started playing music when I was 8 years old. My first instrument was the Euphonium. At 14 I discovered jazz music and wanted to know everything about it. Soon, I switched to the piano as my main instrument and started studying jazz as well as classical music. At 18 I started my bachelor’s degree in musicology at the university of Gent. Within the bachelor program, I successfully fulfilled an exchange program at the Humboldt University in Berlin. In the same period I had lessons and masterclasses with master musicians such as Ewout Pierreux, Jozef Dumoulin, Harmen Fraanje, Marie-Anne Standaert and Nathalie Loriers.
At 23 I started studying jazz piano at LUCA School of Arts where I studied, among other people, with Ron Van Rossum and Frank Vaganée. In my third year I did an exchange program at CMDL (Centre des Musiques Didier Lockwood) where I studied for a year with Benoît Sourisse. I obtained my master’s degree magna cum laude at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp under the tutelage of bass player Nathan Wouters, with whom I worked on writing my own compositions. After receiving my final degree in music, I also obtained a master’s degree in education.
Since 2019 I also participated twice in the Keep an Eye workshop of the conservatory of Amsterdam, which was among other people taught by Dick Oatts, Karel Boehlee, Jay Anderson, and John Riley. In 2024 I participated in the International Siena Jazz workshop and had the chance to learn from and perform with among others, Ofri Nehemya, Theo Bleckmann, Dan Weiss and Miles Okazaki.
Finally, since 2020 I also started teaching piano and theoretical courses at the SAMWD Dendermonde within the field of jazz-pop-rock (as it is officially called). I also coordinate the jazz-pop-rock department in the same school.