account
basket
Challenge Records Int. Logo
"Necessity is the mother of invention." - Frank Zappa

Since Floriaan Wempe (1989) was young, he heard a lot of jazz and classical music, and when only 5 years old, he already asked for CD's by Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. It was clear that he was going to play the saxophone. When he was 9 years old, and finally changed teeth, he could start taking lessons. After a few years of classical lessons, Floriaan started to focus on jazz and at the age of 12 he suddenly became second in the prestigious national Prinses Christina Jazz Competition. In the years that followed, Floriaan was part of a band of promising musicians led by Robert Veen, with which he played a lot of different venues. Among them the Dutch North Sea Jazz Festival for four times! With the last generation of this initiative, "The New Arrivals", he attended the Prinses Christina Jazz Competition again in 2006. The professional jury as well as the laureate jury awarded him the first prize. In 2007, Floriaan started his education at the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag. He was taught by musicians such as John Ruocco, Toon Roos and Rolf Delfos.
In the last year, Floriaan developed and profiled himself as a soloist in different contexts and as a section player with ensembles such as New Cool Collective and the Royal Conservatory Big Band. As a soloist, Floriaan won the Leidse Jazz Award 2012, including the audience award and in March that year he was nominated for the prestigious Deloitte Jazz Award. Despite his very young age, Floriaan studied and played with a lot of the big ones like Benjamin Herman, Peter Beets, Rik Mol, Peter Guidi, Jos Machtel, Juraj Stanik, Karel Boehlee, Joost van Schaik, Frank McComb, Slide Hampton, Joe Cohn, Peter Erskine, Don Braden, Owen Hart jr., Reuben Rogers, Gregory Hutchinson and Ralph Peterson jr. He has played in the Bimhuis, the North Sea Jazz Festival, The Hague Jazz, Haarlem Jazz Festival and Utrecht Jazz Festival.
 

Featured on

Flo's Flow
Floriaan Wempe