"Arjen Gorter (January 2, 1948, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) played accordeon at age 8, guitar at 12 and double bass from age 16. He is self-taught, but for a few months of classical bass lessons and some semesters of weekly jazz workshops with Theo Loevendie and Nedly Elstak.

He graduated from the Barlaeus Gymnasium and studied political science and sociology at the University of Amsterdam, until becoming a full-time musician in early 1970.

In 1966 he participated in the 18-piece Orkest '66 with which Willem Breuker caused upheaval at the Loosdrecht Jazz Festival, together with Ileana Melita, Gilius van Bergeyk, Hans Vonk, Jan Wolff, Hans Dulfer and others. He also participated in various projects by the Instant Composers Pool ICP in the late '60's.

From 1967 through 1971 active in various groups led by Gunter Hampel with a.o. Jeanne Lee, Anthony Braxton, Steve McCall en John McLaughlin, at festivals in Germany, Belgium, France, Italy and Yugoslavia.

During the first half of the 1970's free-lance contrabassist, for example in groups led by Chris McGregor (Paradiso, Amsterdam), John Stevens (Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Berliner Jazz Tage), Gato Barbieri (Bilzen Festival, with Han Bennink) en Paul Bley (Chateauvallon, with Steve McCall).

Member of the Irene Schweizer/ Rudiger Carl Quartet 1972-1975, with a.o. Louis Moholo. In The Netherlands work with Boy Edgar, Loek Dikker, Hans Dulfer & Ritmo Natural, Herman de Wit and Leo Cuypers.

From 1972 through 1985 cooperation with composer/saxophonist Theo Loevendie in his Consort and Quartet; bassist in groups with Nedly Elstak (e.g. Several Singers and a Horn) between 1978 and 1984.

From the founding in 1974 until the move in 2005 involved in the organisation behind the BIMhuis in Amsterdam; for twelve years board member of the Union of Improvising Musicians BIM; member of the Dutch Arts Council (Raad voor de Kunst) for six years in the '80's.

Arjen was a member of the Willem Breuker Kollektief from its founding in 1975 until the last concert on December 31, 2012, and travelled with this ensemble all over the world, including multiple tours of Russia, China, Japan, India, Indonesia en Australia, and some twenty tours through the United States.

Besides, through the years he is still active internationally as free lance contrabassist/improviser, performing together with musicians ranging from Charles Tyler to Phil Woods, from Sheila Jordan to Suzie Stern and from Rene Thomas to Pere Soto.

He was bassist for the Mal Waldron European Quartet, with John Betsch and Sean Bergin, until Waldron's death in December 2002. Since the millennium he performed with Craig Handy, Alex Coke, Archie Shepp and James Carter, and with the Eric Dolphy 2000 Project (with Breuker, John Engels and Eric Vloeimans). With Toby Delius, Michael Moore and Martin van Duijnhoven he played in the Frank van Bommel Quintet, which toured Canada in 2003. He was part of the Drummers Double Bill and 3DoubleDutch projects led by Rob Verdurmen and Arend Niks, touring in Holland and China.

More recently Arjen did guest performances with ICP, Bik Bent Braam and Available Jelly, and with groups led by Eric Boeren, Jorrit Dijkstra and Ramon Valle.

In July 2011 Arjen organized and co-arranged the project 'Eric Dolphy at the Five Spot Revisited', giving concerts at the BIMhuis in Amsterdam and at the North Sea Jazz Festival, which featured a quintet led by Moppa Elliott and Peter Evans along with Gorter's sextet with Tom Arthurs, Rudi Mahall, Alex Coke, Benoit Delbecq and John Betsch.

From 2010 he plays regularly in trio with pianist Leo Bouwmeester and Alex Coke on flute, bass flute and tenor sax.

A more recent addition is the Michael Moore Bigtet, an octet that combines the forces of seasoned improvisers like Wolter Wierbos with those of younger talent like pianist Kaja Draksler.

Since many seasons Arjen tours the Dutch theatre circuit with I Compani, the large group that saxophonist Bo van de Graaf has been leading for over 30 years, mixing improvisation and composition with film music and live video."

Bert Koppelaar is a trombonist known for the groups ICP Tentet, and Misha Mengelberg Tentet.

"Erik van Lier (* 6. April 1945 in Haarlem ) is a Dutch jazz - bass trombonist. He played in many big bands in the Netherlands and Germany.Live and act

Van Lier began his career with the Dutch radio big band, The Skymasters and Boy Edgar. In 1970 he took part in a trombone battle at the Lorsdrecht Jazz Festival with Slide Hampton, Åke Persson, Urbie Green, Kai Winding and Frank Rosolino. He became particularly popular through his work in the Kenny Clarke / Francy Boland Big Band ; He also played as a guest musician on the albums of Ekseption, then belonged to the big bands of Joe Haider and worked for Thad Jones A Ball of Fire. In 1974 he went to the United States for further training, where he studied with leading bass trombonists such as George Roberts and Ed Kleinhammer. He later belonged to Peter Herbolzheimer's Rhythm Combination & Brass and to the Bart's Bones trombone quartet. He also recorded with Piet Noordijk and the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw.

Van Lier now lives in the Netherlands; he taught at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Like his brother Bart van Lier, who was five years his junior, he also worked as a lecturer in the German BuJazzo (Federal Jazz Orchestra)."

"Franciscus Jozef Brüggen Dutch conductor, recorder player and baroque flutist, born October 30, 1934 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, died August 13, 2014 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is considered among the foremost experts in the performance of eighteenth century music. At the age of 21 he was appointed professor at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag and later held position as Erasmus Professor at Harvard University and Regent's Professor at the University of Berkeley, making him one of the youngest musical scholars of the time.

Brother of cellist Albert Brüggen and uncle of flutist Daniel Brüggen."

"Frederic Anthony Rzewski (born April 13, 1938 in Westfield, Massachusetts) is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.

Rzewski (pronounced zheff-skee) began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt. In 1960, he went to Italy, a trip which was formative in his future musical development. In addition to studying with Luigi Dallapiccola, he began a career as a performer of new piano music, often with an improvisatory element. A few years later he was a co-founder of Musica Elettronica Viva with Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum. Musica Elettronica Viva conceived music as a collective, collaborative process, with improvisation and live electronic instruments prominently featured. In 1971 he returned to New York.

In 1977 Rzewski became Professor of Composition at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liège, Belgium, then directed by Henri Pousseur. Occasionally he teaches for short periods at schools and universities throughout the U.S. and Europe, including Yale University, the University of Cincinnati, the California Institute of the Arts, the University of California, San Diego, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and Trinity College of Music, London.

Many of Rzewski's works are inspired by secular and socio-historical themes, show a deep political conscience and feature improvisational elements. Some of his better-known works include The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (36 variations on the Sergio Ortega song El pueblo unido jamás será vencido), a set of virtuosic piano variations written as a companion piece to Beethoven's Diabelli Variations; Coming Together, which is a setting of letters from Sam Melville, an inmate at Attica State Prison, at the time of the famous riots there (1971); North American Ballads; Night Crossing with Fisherman; Fougues; Fantasia and Sonata; The Price of Oil, and Le Silence des Espaces Infinis, both of which use graphical notation; Les Moutons de Panurge; and the Antigone-Legend, which features a principled opposition to the policies of the State, and which was premiered on the night that the United States bombed Libya in April 1986. Among his most recent compositions, the most interesting are the Nanosonatas (2006~2010) and the Cadenza con o senza Beethoven (2003), written for Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto. Rzewski played the solo part in the world premiere of his piano concerto at the 2013 BBC Proms.

Nicolas Slonimsky (1993) says of him in Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians: "He is furthermore a granitically overpowering piano technician, capable of depositing huge boulders of sonoristic material across the keyboard without actually wrecking the instrument." "

"Gilius van Bergeijk (born Den Haag, 7 November 1946) is a Dutch composer.

Taught by Kees van Baaren and Dick Raaymakers (electronic music), Gilius van Bergeijk is a highly respected teacher at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Van Bergeijk also studied oboe and alto saxophone, playing with Peter Brötzmann in the Instant Composers Pool orchestra.

Many of his works focus on the transformation of familiar materials through deconstructive formal processes. Some of his better known works include:

6 Piano installations.
On Death and Time 1980 (for electronic instruments, piano, organ contralto voice)
Symphony of a 1000 (alphabetically)
BAC 1968-1970 for Barrel organ

Notable students include Richard Ayres, Allison Cameron, Kristoffer Zegers, Sinta Wullur, Frank Martinez and many other composition students who have passed through the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. See: List of music students by teacher: A to B#Gilius van Bergeijk. Van Bergeijk is also an avid cyclist and speed-skater."

"Drummer and multi-instrumentalist Han Bennink was born in Zaandam near Amsterdam in 1942. His first percussion instrument was a kitchen chair. Later his father, an orchestra percussionist, supplied him with a more conventional outfit, but Han never lost his taste for coaxing sounds from unlikely objects he finds backstage at concerts. He is still very fond of playing chairs.

In Holland in the 1960s, Bennink was quickly recognized as an uncommonly versatile drummer. As a hard swinger in the tradition of his hero Kenny Clarke, he accompanied touring American jazz stars, including Sonny Rollins, Ben Webster, Wes Montgomery, Johnny Griffin, Eric Dolphy and Dexter Gordon. He is heard with Gordon on the 1969 album "Live at Amsterdam Paradiso" (on the Affinity label) and with Dolphy on 1964s "Last Date" (PolyGram). At the same time, Bennink participated in the creation of a European improvised music which began to evolve a new identity, apart from its jazz roots. With fellow Dutch pioneers, pianist Misha Mengelberg and saxophonist Willem Breuker, he founded the musicians collective Instant Composers Pool in 1967. Bennink anchored various bands led by Mengelberg or Breuker, and appeared in their comic music-theater productions.

Bennink attended art school in the 1960s, and is also a successful visual artist in several media, often constructing sculpture from found objects, which may include broken drum heads and sticks. He has designed the covers for many LPs and CDs on which he appears. Bennink is represented by Amsterdam's Galerie Espace, and has been the subject of several one-man shows, including one at the Gemeente Museum in the Hague in 1995.

In 1966, Bennink played the US's Newport Jazz Festival with the Mengelberg quartet. From the late 1960s through the '70s Bennink collaborated frequently with Danish, German, English and Belgian musicians, notably saxophonists John Tchicai and Peter Broetzmann, guitarist Derek Bailey and pianist Fred van Hove. Bennink, Broetzmann and van Hove had a longstanding trio well documented on FMP Records. There Bennink also showcased his talents on clarinet, trombone, soprano saxophone and many other instruments, also featured in a series of solo albums he began in 1971.

Bennink's many recordings from the 1980s include sessions with Mengelberg's ICP Orchestra (where he remains), South African bassist Harry Miller, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, trombonists Roswell Rudd and George Lewis, and big-bandleaders Sean Bergin and Andy Sheppard.

From 1988 to'98 Bennink's main vehicle was Clusone 3, with saxophonist and clarinetist Michael Moore and cellist Ernst Reijseger, a band noted for its free-wheeling mix of swinging jazz standards, wide-open improvising, and tender ballads. Clusone played Europe and North America, West Africa, China, Vietnam and Australia, and recorded five CDs for Gramavision, hat Art and Ramboy.

Nowadays he is frequently heard with tenor saxophonist Tobias Delius's quartet and in a trio with pianist/keyboardist Cor Fuhler and bassist Wilbert de Joode, and he still collaborates occasionally with jazz luminaries such as Johnny Griffin, Von Freeman and Ray Anderson.

A conspicuous feature of Bennink's musical life since the 1960s is the spontaneous duo concert with musicians of many nationalities and musical inclinations; in the '90s he recorded in duo with among others pianists Mengelberg, Irene Schweizer and Myra Melford, guitarist Eugene Chadbourne, trumpeter Dave Douglas and tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin.

Since 2008 Han Bennink has his own Han Bennink Trio consisting of Han Bennink, Joachim Badenhorst on clarinet and Simon Toldam on piano."

Hasso van der Westen is a classical lutenist and viola player.

Henry Ronde, aka Sir Henry Ronde, is a steel drum player and vocalist, known for the groups The Silvertone Steel Orchestra, Willy Baranda And His West-Indian Steelband, The Silvertone, and Instant Composers Pool.

"Lodewijk de Boer (born February 11, 1937 in Amsterdam as Lodewijk Maria Lichtveld ; † June 4, 2004 there) was a Dutch theater maker, composer and improvisation musician.

De Boer first studied viola at the conservatory ; from 1961 he was active as a violist in the Concertgebouw Orchestra. An Amsterdam student society performed his one-act play De kaalkop luistert in 1963. In 1966 he wrote the libretto for the opera Labyrint by Peter Schat, then for Theo Loevendie's opera Naima. Also stripped him Gustav Leonhardt and Frans Bruggen approach for their recordings; he was also a musician at the collective opera Reconstructie by Misha Mengelberg,Louis Andriessen, Reinbert de Leeuw, Peter Schat and Jan van Vlijmen, which premiered in 1969 at the Holland Festival. At the end of the 1960s, he mainly worked as a director: with the actors Cees Linnebank and Huib Broos in the leading roles, he developed the play The Family, which played in the Provo movement, had great success in the Netherlands and was also performed in Germany, and which he filmed in 1973. In 1976 he directed the television film De watergeus, which was also based on its own script. He also directed Willem Breuker's musical theater piecesKain en Abel (1972) and Jona, De Neezegger (2003) and wrote the libretto for Louis Andriessen's music theater Orpheus. He wrote the music for short films, then also for feature films such as The Bought Woman (1984) by Marleen Gorris and television productions ( De Partizanen, 1995). He also worked as an improviser with Amsterdam Drama and with Michel Waisvisz. His production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (2002) with Edwin de Vries and Will van Kralingen received excellent reviews. As a musician, he was also involved in recordings by Liesbeth List, Willem Breuker and Henny Vrienten, Spectral Display and the Instant Composers Pool."

"Manfred Schoof (born 6 April 1936) is a German jazz trumpeter.

Schoof was born in Magdeburg and studied music in Kassel and Cologne.

He is a founder of European free jazz and collaborated with Albert Mangelsdorff, Peter Brötzmann, Mal Waldron, and Irène Schweizer. He has interpreted Die Soldaten, an operatic work by the contemporary composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann.

Schoof won various jazz prizes and is involved in the German musical rights association. Since 2007 he has been chairman of the Union Deutscher Jazzmusiker. He has been a professor in Cologne since 1990."

"Manfred Schoof (born 6 April 1936) is a German jazz trumpeter.

Schoof was born in Magdeburg and studied music in Kassel and Cologne.

He is a founder of European free jazz and collaborated with Albert Mangelsdorff, Peter Brötzmann, Mal Waldron, and Irène Schweizer. He has interpreted Die Soldaten, an operatic work by the contemporary composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann.

Schoof won various jazz prizes and is involved in the German musical rights association. Since 2007 he has been chairman of the Union Deutscher Jazzmusiker. He has been a professor in Cologne since 1990."

"Misha Mengelberg (5 June 1935 - 3 March 2017) was a Dutch jazz pianist and composer. A prominent figure in post-WWII European Jazz, Megelberg is known for his forays into free improvisation, for bringing humor into his music, and as a leading interpreter of songs by fellow pianists Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols.

Mengelberg was born in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, the son of the Dutch conductor Karel Mengelberg (born Karel Willem Joseph Mengelberg; 18 July 1902, Utrecht - 11 July 1984, Amsterdam) and grand-nephew of conductor Willem Mengelberg. Karel Mengelberg was a Dutch composer and conductor, who worked in Berlin, Barcelona, Kiev and Amsterdam. A notable work of his was 'Catalunya Renaixent', written for the Banda Municipal of Barcelona in 1934.

Misha's family moved back to the Netherlands in the late 1930s and he began learning the piano at age five. Mengelberg briefly studied architecture before entering the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where he studied music from 1958-64. While there he won the first prize at a jazz festival in Loosdrecht and became associated with Fluxus. His early influences included Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington and John Cage, whom he heard lecture at Darmstadt.

Mengelberg won the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 1961. Among his first recordings was among Eric Dolphy's last, Last Date (1964). Also on that record was the drummer Han Bennink, and the two of them, together with saxophonist Piet Noordijk, formed a quartet which had a number of different bassists, and which played at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1966. In 1967 he co-founded the Instant Composers Pool, an organisation which promoted avant garde Dutch jazz performances and recordings, with Bennink and Willem Breuker. He was co-founder of STEIM in Amsterdam in 1969.

Mengelberg played with a large variety of musicians. He often performed in a duo with fellow Dutchman Bennink, with other collaborators including Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, Anthony Braxton, and (on the flip side of a live recording with Dolphy) his pet parrot. He was also one of the earliest exponents of the work of the once-neglected pianist Herbie Nichols.

He also wrote music for others to perform (generally leaving some room for improvisation) and oversaw a number of music theatre productions, which usually included a large element of absurdist humour. A 2006 DVD release, Afijn (ICP/Data), is a primer on Mengelberg's life and work, containing an 80-minute documentary and additional concert footage.[citation needed]

Mengelberg died in Amsterdam on 3 March 2017, aged 81, from undisclosed causes."

Born in the Netherlands, Peter Bennink performs on alto saxophone, bagpipe, soprano saxophone. He is the brother of drummer Han Bennink. He performed in groups Globe Unity Orchestra, Haazz & Company, and ICP Tentet.

"Theo Loevendie (born September 17, 1930 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch composer and clarinet player. Loevendie studied composition and clarinet at the music academy (Conservatorium) of Amsterdam. Initially he concentrated on jazz music. As off 1968 he also wrote concert music, among which operas, concertos and chamber music. Several of his compositions won prizes. Starting 1970 Loevendie taught composition at several Dutch conservatoires. Among his many students were Svitlana Azarova, Matthias Kadar, Vanessa Lann, Peter van Onna, Robin de Raaff, Victor Varela, Sinta Wullur and Evrim Demirel. As a performer, he participated in the ensembles Consort, Brevisand the Theo Loevendie Quintet. In 2004, he founded a new group: The "Ziggurat Ensemble". It consists of a mix of western and non-western instruments: Er-hu, Viola da Gamba, Qanun, Voice, Duduk, Bass, Pan Pipes and Percussion."

"Willem Breuker (4 November 1944, Amsterdam - 23 July 2010 Amsterdam) was a Dutch jazz bandleader, composer, arranger, saxophonist, and (bass) clarinetist.

During the mid 1960s he played with percussionist Han Bennink and pianist Misha Mengelberg, co-founding the Instant Composers Pool (ICP), with which he regularly performed until 1973. He was a member of the Globe Unity Orchestra and the Gunter Hampel Group.

In 1974, he began leading the 10-piece Willem Breuker Kollektief, which performed jazz in a theatrical and often unconventional manner, drawing elements from theater and vaudeville. With the group, he toured Western Europe, Russia, Australia, India, China, Japan, the United States, and Canada.

He was also known as an authority on the music of Kurt Weill. In 1997, he produced, with Carrie de Swaan, a 48-hour, 12-part radio documentary on the life of Weill entitled Componist Kurt Weill.

In 1974, he founded the record label BVHaast. Beginning in 1977, he organized the annual Klap op de Vuurpijl (Top It All) festival in Amsterdam. Haast Music Publishers, which he also operated, published his scores.

In 1992, Editions de Limon published the book Willem Breuker by J. and F. Buzelin in France. Uitgeverij Walburg Pers published a Dutch translation in 1994. BVHaast published the book Willem Breuker Kollektief: Celebrating 25 Years on the Road, which includes two CDs, in 1999.

In 1998, Breuker was knighted with the Order of the Netherlands Lion.

Willem Breuker died on 23 July, 2010 in Amsterdam. He suffered from lung cancer and had been ill for some time."