Gideon van Gelder

Gideon van Gelder (1983) was raised in a very musical environment with his father running a jazz recordstore and his mother being a classically trained singer.

Always having displayed affinity for improvisation the choice to further persue music was encouraged when he was invited at age seventeen to join the Royal Concertgebouw Jazzorchestra as a guest soloist, playing an arrangement of a composition he had written for the occasion. Two years later he gave his first solo piano concert and within another year he performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival.

In demand with his own groups as well as a sideman he played in Paris and Amsterdam with tenorist Rick Margitza, had a week long engagement with his own group in Jordan (where the performances were frequented by the royal
family) and subbed for Thelonious Monk awardwinning pianist/composer Michiel Borstlap on more than one occasion. He currently plays with Benjamin Herman and Jesse van Ruller on a regular basis (who are considered Holland's top altoist and guitarist, respectively).

Recipient of a number of honours and awards, Gideon won 1st place and both alumni and audience awards at the 2004 Princess Christina Jazz Competition in a duo with his brother Ben. Also, he is an alumnus of the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead residency program based in the Kennedy Center for the Perfoming Arts in Washinton D.C. The program recognizes outstanding young adult jazz composers/performers and past alumni include pianists Jacky Terrasson, Cyrus Chestnut and Jason Moran.
Most recently he was awarded a scholarship by the New School for Jazz and Contemporary music in New York enabling him to continue his studies there after summer. Coming november he will receive the Jazz Talent Foundation Award, granted annually to a young player deserving wider recognition.

Gideon is a former student of the Amsterdam conservatory where he studied with Karel Boehlee. Aside from the school he studied privately with Michiel Borstlap, Jimmy Halperin, David Berkman and Mulgrew Miller.

www.gideonvangelder.com