Jeroen van Vliet, born 1965, is known for his lyrical style and clear sound at the piano. He is a composer, pianist and keyboardplayer in a wide variety of groups. In 1985 and 1988 he won both first- and soloist prizes at the main contests of the Netherlands. Between 1989 and 2007 he was the pianist in the groups of alto-player Paul van Kemenade and of bassplayer Eric van der Westen.
Throughout the years he worked with international artists as (a.o.) Bob Malach, Kenny Wheeler, John Zorn, Norma Winstone, Charly Mariano and Erkan Ogur, Jakob Bro. His cooperation with trumpeter Eric Vloeimans resulted in a number of albums and concerts, both as a duo as well as in the group Gatecrash (Edison Award in 2007). As a sideman van Vliet recorded about 50 albums, as a leader 9. Among his groups are the Jeroen van Vliet Trio and the Jeroen van Vliet Electric Trio. In 2008 the new group Estafest started: energetic, exciting and adventurous.
After receiving the Composition Assignment of the North Sea Jazzfestival 2008, van Vliet invited his group – called Sikeda – that performed his music, to record and tour in 2010. In 2013 he worked in South Africa with bass-legend Carlo Mombelli. He travelled to Australia, India, China, South-Korea with Gatecrash and the Yuri Honing quartet.
Currently Jeroen van Vliet works with German-Afghan singer Simin Tander, Jeroen van Vliet's OGU, solo, Estafest, Eric Vloeimans' Gatecrash, and the Udo Pannekeet 4tet. In 2014 he released 2 albums, the solo-album 'Wait' and the trio-cd OGU. The new album 'Eno Supo' by Estafest, as well as the albums 'Where water travels home' by Simin Tander 4tet and 'On' by Udo Pannekeet were released. All got great reviews.In 2014 Jeroen van Vliet was awarded the most important prize in the Netherlands for jazz and improvised music, The Boy Edgar Prijs.

Angelo Verploegen (Oss, NL,1961) studied Musicology at the Amsterdam University and trumpet at the Jazz Department of the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatory. Angelo is one of the leading Dutch trumpet players around nowadays. His focused yet velvety tone on both trumpet and flugelhorn and his sensitive approach make Angelo a beloved artist. Angelo is active on the scene with groups such as Toïs, The Houdini's and Verploegen, Verhoeff & Van der Westen and he was involved in projects with Bik Bent Braam, Amsterdam Sinfonietta and Bob Brookmeyer's New Art Orchestra. He toured Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia, did co-productions with string orchestra Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam (Richard Dufallo, Wayne Marshall), Schönberg Ensemble (John Adams), Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw. Produced most of the recordings of The Houdini’s and furthermore internationally released CDs of many vocalists and instrumentalists. Teaches trumpet at the Jazz department of the School of the Arts Utrecht (HKU) and the Jazz & Pop Department of the School of Music Arnhem (ArtEZ). Since 2007 Artistic Director of the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw.

“Compositions steeped in theatrical depth and lyrics that testify to a lot of life experience and wisdom.” – Marloes Pieksma (Jazzism)

Sara Bax is a genuine vocalist and composer whose heartfelt music is described as “color creative”. Through her narrative music style, she strives to reflect and search for the connection with yourself, others, and the world. In her words: “making music connects me to the magic in this world, and it’s a way to make people sparkle.”

Her intimate and natural way of singing makes the listener feel as though they are part of the experience. “My purpose is to create a sincere environment for you to (re)connect, to feel the magic and love of this world so together we can lift each other up.”

Sara played at North Sea Jazz as a trumpet player of the ArtEZ Big Collective and recently founded a band with well-known musicians Jeroen van Vliet (Boy Edgar Prize), Angelo Verploegen, Annie Tangberg (Metropole Orkest), and Maximilian Hering.