“Floris is a great musical talent, a promise for the future!” – Lex Jasper
Just like with his sister, music plays an important role for Floris. He started playing the piano at the age of 5. His father taught him to play children’s songs and jazz songs while improvising. At the age of five, he already played his first blues with two hands including improvisation.
Since spring 2022, he has been taking classical piano lessons from Nanke Flach. Here he learns to discover the world of classical piano music, to play technically well, but above all to put his musicality into it.
In December 2022, Floris was in the final of the Haydn Music Festival with works by Bach, Kachaturian and Billie Strayhorn. The latter composer was a special contribution from Floris. He had made a transcription of Take The A Train (Billie Strayhorn) himself in a performance by Oscar Peterson, including the improvisation.
The year 2022 was marked by fantastic encounters with super pianists such as; Peter Beets, Rob van Bavel, Cor Bakker, Lex Jasper and Rein de Graaff. Floris goes to Mike Boddé once every three months, who teaches him to deal with music creatively and without boundaries. Floris is the only student Mike has, a beautiful inspiring friendship. A highlight was the performance of Floris together with Mike in the last broadcast of Podium Witteman on May 15, 2022. They played Take The A Train together.
From September 2023, Floris will receive lessons once a month from one of the leading pianists in the jazz world, Rob van Bavel. A beautiful musical friendship has also developed here. Floris would love to go every day!
After the summer in 2022, Floris started a new challenge. He made a transcription of Come Rain Or Come Shine in a performance by Lex Jasper. On October 9, Floris recorded it and paid a tribute to this fantastic living jazz legend Lex Jasper. In March 2023, Floris attended a concert by Lex Jasper and Lex surprised Floris, his trio and the audience by having him perform Come Rain Or Come Shine with his trio. A dream come true!
On November 26, 2023, Floris won the Music Prize of the Princess Christina Competition in the category 9 to 12 years.
On December 3, he won the Haydn Music Festival in the category 6 to 9 years.
From January 2024, Floris will occasionally receive lessons from the great pianist Nata Tsvereli. She is a great addition to the regular classical piano lessons that Floris receives from Nanke Flach.
On February 20, a dream came true! Floris got the chance to meet his great idol Jacob Collier. Floris had won a competition organized by Universal Studios. He was invited to meet Jacob Collier in the studio of Martin Garrix’s. Together with 12 other prize winners. They all listened to Jacob’s new album, a week before its release. Afterwards, they were allowed to ask questions.
In 2024, Floris was also asked by Bert Boeren to be ‘artist in residence’ for the next five editions of Jazzy Huiskamers in Den Bosch. The idea behind it is that the audience can follow the musical development of this young talent.
Also this year, Floris participated in the RTL 4 TV program, De Piano. This was broadcasted on April 10.
Floris Rol: “I can’t walk by passing a piano without playing it. On vacation, I even take a fold-out piano with me so that I can play in the caravan. Because I play the piano, I meet a lot of interesting and nice people”.