Press kit
Biography in three lengths, quotes and the facts, ready to copy. For photographs, a rider or anything not here, write and you get it the same day.
What musicians say.
“I wanted to record Michiel’s composition and play it at my concerts”
“Michiel wants to make me practice. He has such a command of the instrument”
What the papers say.
“Crystalline piano playing”
The New York Times“Heavyweight pianist. A master!”
Ottawa Citizen“Mesmerizing”
Time Out London“Full of intensity, beautifully detailed improvisations”
NRC“Breathtaking beauty, amongst the international top”
Jazzenzo“Magical solo concert by one of Europe’s finest jazz pianists”
Gulf Times“Music with such beauty as Frames we hear rarely in the Netherlands”
Platomania“Impressively subdued”
de Volkskrant“If Borstlap was a drug he’d be illegal”
Harry Schnipper · Blues Alley, Washington DCThree lengths.
Use whichever fits. No need to ask, and no need to rewrite.
Michiel Borstlap is a Dutch pianist and composer working between jazz, neoclassical and improvised music, with ninety-two countries behind him.
Michiel Borstlap is a Dutch pianist and composer working between jazz, neoclassical and improvised music. He won the Thelonious Monk / BMI Composers Award for his composition Memory of Enchantment, which Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter went on to record, and a Gouden Kalf for his film score to Tiramisu. He has performed in ninety-two countries.
Michiel Borstlap is a Dutch pianist and composer whose work moves between jazz, neoclassical, cinematic and improvised music. Born in The Hague into a musical family, he graduated cum laude from the Conservatory in Hilversum and won both First Prize with his band and the Prize for Best Soloist at the Europe Jazz Contest in 1992.
In 1996 he became the first Dutch musician to receive the Thelonious Monk / BMI Composers Award, for his composition Memory of Enchantment. Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter recorded the piece for their duo album 1+1 and carried it through their world tour, and Kurt Elling recorded his own version in 2024. Borstlap signed to Verve in 1997.
In 2003 the Emir of Qatar commissioned him to write Avicenna, the first opera in the Arabic language, premiered in Doha. He won a Gouden Kalf for his score to the film Tiramisu and an Edison for MONK Vol. 1. He toured for five years with Bill Bruford, and has worked with Pat Metheny, Billy Cobham, George Duke, Gino Vannelli, Trijntje Oosterhuis and Joris Voorn.
He has performed in ninety-two countries, released more than thirty albums, and is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The short version.
- 1992First PrizeEurope Jazz Contest, Belgium, with the band
- 1992Prize for Best SoloistEurope Jazz Contest, Belgium
- 1996Thelonious Monk / BMI Composers AwardWashington DC, for Memory of Enchantment. First Dutch musician to receive it, presented at the Vice President’s residence and then at the Kennedy Center
- 2008Gouden KalfBest film score, Tiramisu
- 2009Edison Jazz AwardMONK Vol. 1, with Han Bennink and Ernst Glerum
Ask and you get it.
Photographs in print resolution, the stage plan and the technical rider are not on this page. Write and they come back the same day, with the photographer’s credit that has to run alongside.