Pianist Jeroen van Vliet, a 40-year-old musician with the attitude of a young dog, has played himself to the summit of Dutch jazz in the past two decades. In the eighties he won a number of prestigious Dutch jazz prizes and he graduated from the Utrecht conservatory in 1991 with distinction. In 1988 he started playing with saxophonist Paul van Kemenade's band, a cooperation that lasted almost 20 years. Van Vliet is a gifted soloist, both on the grand piano and on the Fender Rhodes, and as a composer he has earned praise too. He has written for piano trios and wind instruments (Sound Rituals) and he received a "carte blanche" for his compositions from the Bimhuis, Holland's most renowned jazz podium. For this occasion he has written a composition for his trio, together with a string quartet and clarinet. The creativity and the individuality of this composition made the organization of North Sea Jazz and the "Muziek Centrum Nederland" in cooperation with the "Nederlands Fonds voor de Podiumkunsten+" decide to award this year's composition assignment to Jeroen van Vliet.
