Bert Van den brink
piano

Bert van den Brink was born on the 24th. of july 1958. When he was five years old he got his first piano lesson. In 1976 Bert started his professional classical education at the conservatory of Utrecht. He studied piano with Herman Uhlhorn. In 1982 he graduated cum laude. In that same year he was employed at theUtrechts' conservatory to teach jazz piano. From childhood he has already been improvising a lot on piano and organ. In this field of the music Bert is completely self tought. In the first period after graduation he gave several classical recitals, but gradually the balance changed more to jazz. He performed and is performing with musicians like: Toots Thielemans Chet Baker, Nat Aderly, Benny Golson, Lee Konitz, Rick Margitza, Willem Hellbreker, Philip Catherine, Jesse van Ruller, Clare Fischer, Enrico Pieranunzi, Louis van Dijk, Jules de Corte, Cor Bakker, John Engels, Hein van de Geyn, Hans van Oosterhout, Dee Dee Bridgewater Denise Jannah, Miranda van Kralingen, Heleen van den Hombergh, Thomas Oliemans, In 1990 and 1991 he was the pianist in the quartet of Dee Dee Bridgewater. For some years he was the musical director in the band of Denise Jannah. He was the pianist in the Heleen van den Hombergh quartet. Bert performed with the vocalist Miranda van Kralingen in the program "vocal variety" Bert plays solo jazz piano live or on the internet or on cd all under the name: Bert's Bytes. In the past Bert recorded several solo albums. One of those albums "Jazz at the Pine Hill" got an Edison Nomination. Bert plays in duo with: Toots Thielemans on harmonica Jesse van Ruller guitar Philip Catherine guitar The Bert van den Brink trio with bass player Hein van de Geyn and drummer Hans van Oosterhout released their first trio album "between us" in 2004 As a side man he is recording more and more as you can find out further in the discography. With vocalist Thomas Oliemans Bert recorded The song cycle of Franz Schubert Winterreise. As arranger/producer his works are played by the Metropole orchestra, the Dutch Wood winds Ensemble, Denise Jannah and others. One of the highlights is his arrangement of the opera Porgy & Bess performed by the Houdini's and new Sinfonietta Amsterdam. There are many future plans and dreams. Bert hopes and tries to realize a lot of them.