Biography
Sietse van Gorkom violin
Sietse (Arnhem, Netherlands, 1981) started violinlessons in 1988 at the local musicschool "Streekmuziekschool" in Dieren. In 1994 private lessons with Iris de Leur in Castricum and then subsequently with Peter de Leeuw, Julia Veerling and Jeroen de Groot in Amsterdam. He is now a student at the Rotterdam Conservatory studying with teachers such as the renowned Benzion Shamir and Russian violin pedagogue Natasha Morozova. For jazz he follows lessons with Thelonious Monk Award winner 2003, the famous Dutch trombone player Ilja Reijngoud.
Sietse has played in the Noordholland Youth Orchestra from 1995 to 1999 and in the Ricciotti Ensemble untill 2001. He has played in orchestra projects of the Rotterdam Young Philharmonic under conductors as Valeri Gergiev and Eri Klas. In January 2004 he participated in the Netherlands Student Orchestra (Nederlands Studenten Orkest) with conductor Hans Leenders playing Shostakovitsj 10th Symphony with 10 concerts in Netherlands and in Budapest. He is a much sought after studioviolinist, succesfully cooperating in several studio- and filmmusicsessions. He contributed to movie and video productions such as the filmsoundtrack of the young Rotterdam rascal Pietje Bel (music composed by Henny Vrienten), in the ensemble for “36” live Videoconcert and in several commercials. In 2002 a cd Reprise appeared with piano-violin works by Dutch composer Jan van Amerongen and in 2004 the cd Jazzextensions 25 years Jazzacademy Rotterdam Conservatory. He performed in recitals since 2001 with pianists as Maurice van Schoonhoven, Russian born Alla Milchtein (student of Mila Baslawskaja), Yumi Toyami in the IHMS in Haarlem, Bergen and Alkmaar and with Daniël van der Hoeven. He incidental takes part in orchestraprojects and ensembles; such as the Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra and the accompaniment orchestra for Bach’s Matthaus Passion. He also played in several jazz and latin ensembles, playing as a soloist with saxofonists Ben van den Dungen and Ákos Láki, young musicians as Rik Mol and with the young Jazzmania Bigband by Peter Guidi; he played with latin band of Gerardo Rosales, Zapp! String Quartet and with tango-sexteto Mala Pinta.
In 1999 Sietse attended a summercourse with violinpedagogue Jan Repko. In 2001 and 2002 he followed masterclasses with the legendary violinist Ruggiero Ricci at the Dartington Summerschool of Music (UK). Ricci subsequently invited him for more lessons in his class in Salzburg and Cremona. Summer 2003 he was for a two weeks masterclass with violin legend Tibor Varga in Swiss Sion, ending with a students concert with Chaussons’ Poème. Summer 2004 he participated in a weeks masterclass with famous Dutch violinist Herman Krebbers in The International Holland Music Sessions (IHMS) in Bergen (NL) followed by a recital.
In 2005 and 2006
he joined the succesfull music theatre group 'Jetje en haar Dansorkest'. Now
he is working on new productions. The jazz/hiphop band K-oZ Collective founded
by Sietse, won a number of pop awards in 2005 and has been increasingly succesful
since. Recently the band released their debut cd Voetjes van Velours.
In 2005 he founded the Red Limo String Quartet, a string ensemble gaining exciting
and surprising results searching for new music styles, mixing and improvising:
chamberjazz, new modern music, pop, bigband swing, Argentine tango, latin and
also classical music. The
Red Limo String Quartet repertoire has a growing number of pieces specially
arranged for string quartet by Sietse.
Furthermore Sietse forms a musical coalition with harpplayer Brenda Christina: the classical and jazz duo 51 Strings and the jazz quartet 55 Strings.
Sietse plays a
violin especially built for him in 2002 in Cremona by the Dutch violinmaker
Mathijs Heyligers. He also plays a Charles Bazin violinbow from Mirecourt. Both
were put at his disposition by the Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds (NMF).
Ko-Z Collective concert