Biography

Maurits Roes

At the age of 8 Maurits Roes, born on the 2nd of February 1981 in The Hague, started to play the piano. He took private lessons in classical music. At a certain time he switched to jazz because he wanted to explore his improvisation skills that he was always busy imagening. At a music-school in The Hague the jazz pianist Tilmar Junius started to teach him jazz privately. In the meantime Maurits started to discover the jazz music while playing with people, listening to music, and visiting concerts. Through this experience he wished to enter the conservatory. With the help of Tilmar Junius Maurits entered the Koninklijke Conservatory in The Hague in 2003, and in 2007 he graduated.

He was a student of Marc van Roon, Rob van Bavel, Jurai Stanic. He also participated in workshops with John Taylor, Dave Lieban, Billy Hart, Fred Hersch, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kenny Werner, Branford Marsalis, Hein van de Geyn. He followed several workshops at the conservatories of The Hague, Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

He also participated in 2005 and 2008 at the wellknown International Jazz Masterclasses in Siena (Italy). In 2005 he was a student of Fabrizio Sfera; he performed in a combo with Giovanni Meier. In 2008 he followed the workshops of Stefano Battaglia, Franko D’Andrea, Enrico Rava, Gianluca Trovesi, and also Ricardo del Fra with whom he performed in the Ricardo del Fra Combo. Out of this experience Maurits gained artist friends with whom he would perform later in his life on international level, and toured with them in The Netherlands in 2008.