Harmen Fraanje Trio & Fredrik Ljungkvist
Biography Harmen Fraanje Trio & Fredrik Ljungkvist
Harmen Fraanje
is a pianist, composer and educator from the Netherlands.
He leads and co-leads several projects like his solo project, trio Reijseger Fraanje Sylla, a quartet with Magic Malik, Brice Soniano and Toma Gouband, a new duo with Norwegian trumpet player Arve Henriksen, a trio with Finnish musicians Aino Peltomaa on voice and Mikko Perkola on viola da gamba and a duo with Dutch guitarist Anton Goudsmit. These groups mostly perform original works with a lot of space for improvisation.
Harmen is also very active as a sideman in various projects in the European jazz scene, like the Mats Eilertsen Trio and Michael Moore’s Fragile Quartet. With these projects he frequently performs at festivals and concert venues throughout the world. Recordings of the projects he’s involved in have been released by renowned record labels like ECM, Winter & Winter, Outhere Music, Hubro Music, Challenge Jazz…
Harmen collaborated with the likes of Ambrose Akinmusire, Mark Turner, Kenny Wheeler, Arve Henriksen, Thomas Morgan, Tony Malaby, Han Bennink, Ernst Reijseger, Trygve Seim, Jesse van Ruller, Magic Malik, Nelson Veras, Theo Bleckmann, Ben Monder, Enrico Rava, Werner Herzog, Trio Mediaeval, Hein van de Geyn, Perico Sambeat, Igor Roma, Louis Moholo, Ferenc Kovács, Rudi Mahall, Cristina Branco.
Harmen is chairman of the Jazz Piano Faculty at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam / University of the Arts Amsterdam. He is also frequently invited to give workshops and masterclasses at other European conservatories.
According to the internationally acclaimed website AllAboutJazz “Harmen Fraanje is emerging as one of the most impressive young European pianists of the past decade.”
