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Bram van Sambeek has spent most of his career testing the limits of his instrument. He approaches solo playing with technical precision, conviction and a healthy suspicion of musical conventions.

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As a soloist, he has performed with orchestras across Europe, including the Gothenburg, Galicia and Netherlands Symphony Orchestras, the Warsaw Philharmonic, and the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, and he has inspired composers such as Vanessa Lann, Sebastian Fagerlund, and Kalevi Aho to expand the horizon of the bassoon’s possibilities still further.

His repertoire stretches from the established canon to music written specifically to explore possibilities that the instrument had rarely, or never, been asked to explore. This has led to contemporary concert formats, collaborations across genres, unconventional programmes and projects that deliberately challenge the usual boundaries of classical performance.

He has been described by critics as technically brilliant, boundary-free and unusual, qualities that perhaps explain why his repertoire can move so easily between the familiar and the unexpected.

Van Sambeek’s artistic activities extend across a wide and occasionally bewildering range of styles. His chamber music career has taken him to major international festivals and into collaborations that are mainly united by his his willful ignorance to categorize.

He has worked with classical luminaries such as Heinz Holliger, Nicolas Altstaedt, Rick Stotijn, Christoph Prégardien and Radovan Vlatković, as well as jazz artist Joris Roelofs, and Syrian music visionary and improviser Kinan Azmeh: the common denominator is not a particular style, but artists who bring their own voice to the room and the possibility of discovering something that wasn’t there before.

Bram has been teaching bassoon at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague since 2021. He is deeply committed to his students and takes pride in helping each of them develop their own musical identity. His own experience as an orchestral musician, soloist and chamber musician shapes his teaching: Though he spends a great deal of his teaching on orchestral playing, he refuses to exclusively train toward auditions, preferring a more holistic approach to both the music and the person. The task is not to force everyone towards the same destination, but to give them enough tools, awareness and confidence to find their own.

Along the way, he has given masterclasses at institutions such as the Royal College of Music in London, the Hochschule für Musik in Basel, and the Juilliard School in New York.

Being an artist is not only about what happens on stage. It is also about what kind of world we want to help create.
Bram reduced his international appearances for the sake of decreasing environmental harm by flying considerably less. He also reduced his online visibility by abandoning big tech. His online presence is deliberately simple: his website and a newsletter are the main ways to keep up with his work.

There are instruments and then there are instruments … On the one hand a violin, trumpet or lead guitar so firmly planted in the spotlight that everyone else on stage is reduced to a supporting role. On the other a bassoon, double bass, drum set or Hammond organ, providing the harmonic and rhythmic backdrop against which the soloist can shine. But what if the background instruments rebel? What if they strike back?

The result can be heard with ORBI – the Oscillating Revenge of the Background Instruments: four musicians making their bass-heavy instruments howl and growl in a mix of classical, rock, progressive metal and a little blues, 100% instrumental and lead-singer free. Of this Dutch quartet, Bram (on bassoon) and Rick (double bass) both pursue high-profile careers in classical music. Marijn (percussion) is classically trained but also studied in West Africa and India, and is active in many musical genres as well as multimedia projects. And keyboardist Sven Figee, plays soul, classical and rock in various constellations. Choosing from their own favorite playlists, and with the help of arranger Marijn van Prooijen, they have come up with a mix of music and sounds that is surprising and addictive.
Expect:  Bassoon and double bass unleashed in blistering solo form, crushing riffs, and a sound that locks you in from the first note.