Over Jeroen van Veen
Piano duo
The piano duo Sandra Mol (1968) and Jeroen van Veen (1969) met at the conservatory in Utrecht in 1987. Since that time they play together, sharing their passion for multiple piano music. Their first CD was a live recording, presenting Canto Ostinato for two pianos by the Dutch minimalist Simeon ten Holt. This CD was sold in more than forty countries worldwide. Concerts and recitals brought Sandra & Jeroen from Miami to Novosibirsk. They are initiators of many concert series, among them the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Lek Art Festival in Culemborg. They recorded over forty CDs in the last ten years. Besides playing piano, they teach, adjudicate, compose music and produce many different concert programs on a variety of common and uncommon concert locations such as railway stations.
Canto Ostinato
Sandra Mol studied with the Norwegian pianist Håkon Austbö at the Conservatory in Utrecht where she graduated in 1992. She made her debut with Jeroen van Veen in a performance of Canto Ostinato during Lek Art (Culemborg). The concert was recorded live and the CD has sold in more than forty countries worldwide. As a result, many concerts and CDs followed. Sandra is very dedicated to the music of Ten Holt, but nowadays also plays other kinds of music, ranging from Carmina Burana, The Planets, Rhapsody in Blue, to Tangos and Tubular Bells for four pianos. She played premiere performances of several pieces, written by Dutch composers as J. Andriessen (in Russia) and Ten Holt (in Canada). Furthermore, she is part of an art group with two friends, with whom she produces theatre concerts based on different themes, for example a Composer's Life or the History Of The Piano.
pianist on stage and piano teacher
Sandra gave many concerts and recitals from Miami to Novosibirsk. She takes part in many projects in Holland, as well as abroad. She recorded fourteen CDs on various labels. Several concerts and projects have been broadcasted on radio, television and the Internet. In addition Sandra is a well known, dedicated piano teacher as well. Sandra Mol is a co founder of the Lek Art Foundation and the Simeon ten Holt Foundation and is active as secretary for the latter.
Jeroen Van Veen (1969) started playing the piano at the age of 7. He studied at the Utrecht Conservatory with Alwin Bär and Håkon Austbö. In 1993 he passed the Performing Artists' Exam. Van Veen has played with orchestras conducted by Howard Williams (Adams), Peter Eötvös (Zimmermann) in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Vienna and Budapest and in the United States with Neal Stulberg (Mozart & Bartok) and Robert Craft (Stravinsky) He has played recitals in Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Russia and the USA.
concert pianist
Van Veen attended masterclasses with Claude Helffer, Hans-Peter & Volker Stenzl and Roberto Szidon. He was invited to several festivals; Reder Piano Festival (1988), Festival der Kunsten in Bad Gleichenberg (1992), Wien Modern (1993), Holland Dance Festival (1998) Lek Art Festival (1996-2007). Van Veen recorded for major Dutch radio and television companies like AVRO, NOS, IKON, NCRV, TROS/Internet, WTBC-TV & Radio (Florida, U.S.A.) and Moscow Television. In 1992, Van Veen recorded his first CD with his brother Maarten, as the internationally recognized Piano duo Van Veen. In 1995 Piano duo Van Veen made their debut in the United States. They won prizes in the prestigious 4th International Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition in Miami, Florida. After this achievement they toured the United States and Canada many times. The documentary Two Pianos One Passion (nominated with an Emmy Award 1996) documents them as a duo.
artistic director Student Piano Competition
Besides performing, Jeroen is co founder, member of the jury and artistic director of the International Student Piano Competition, which is organised in Utrecht every two years. In 1995 Jeroen Van Veen founded Van Veen & Van Veen (Van Veen & Co.), a piano duo with Sandra. As such, they mainly perform music for multiple pianos by the Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt. Furthermore, in 1999 Van Veen initiated a concert series Pianova in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Besides his career as a solo pianist, Van Veen also participates in the following ensembles: Kunstgroep vier man op de stoep, Piano Ensemble, The International Piano Quartet, The Simeon Quartet, Piano Mania, DJ Piano and Jeroen van Veen & Friends.
Minimal Piano Collection
The various compositions by Van Veen may be described as Minimal Music with different faces, cross overs to jazz, blues, soundscape, Avant-Garde, techno, trance and pop music. Currently Mr. Van Veen is director of Van Veen Productions, chairman of the Simeon ten Holt Foundation, Culemborg Cultural Foundation, Pianomania Foundation and artistic director of several music festivals in Culemborg, Utrecht and Veldhoven. He is active in the International Utrecht Student Piano Competition and the Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition. Over the last fifteen years Van Veen recorded more than 40 CDs for several labels (Mirasound, Koch, Naxos, Brilliant Classics) and his own label PIANO. The two latest are an eleven CD-box with Simeon ten Holt Multiple Piano Works and a set of nine presenting the Minimal Piano Collection, including his own 24 minimal preludes.
NPO Radio 4 Award
In April 2016 Jeroen has received the prestigious NPO Radio 4 Award (radio on classical music), because of his excellent musician ship, his exceptional repertoire (from minimal music to jazz, from techno to blues), his remarkable lie down concerts in various locations, his extraordinary efforts to reach a broad audience, including young people and his gift to communicate the power of music to listeners.
Tijdnoot I - van Bach tot Beving / Living Piano
In 2022 and 2023 Jeroen presents two shows; one with Sandra and journalist/writer of Ten Holt's biography, Wilma de Rek: Canto Ostinato, in memoriam Simeon ten Holt. The other show is a solo, called Tiersen and Yiruma; two composers of minimal music Jeroen admires. In 2023-2024 Jeroen tours with the concert Tijdnoot I - van Bach tot Beving. He takes the audience on a musical trip (piano) through time. Together with alt violinist Esther Apituley and percussionist Tatjana Koleva he also creates Philip Glass; Songs & Poems, Tissues & Issues in that season. In 2024-2025 he presents Living Piano, in which he connects artificial intelligence to playing the piano.