Marc van Roon

Biography
Jazz pianist Marc van Roon is a multitalented improvising musician who combines music performance with his work as a creative coach for groups in change and learning processes. His compositions are in high demand for dance companies and music ensembles. He has produced several CD's for other artists. Marc enjoys creating harmonious alliances with gifted musicians and art ensembles. On his path he collaborated with Dave Liebman, Clark Terry, Art Farmer, Charlie Mariano, Billy Hart and bassist Santi Di Briano, singer Fay Claassen, Tony Lakatos, cellist Ernst Reijseger, Dutch Guitarist Jesse van Ruller, Michael Moore, The Netherlands Dans Theatre and his own European Jazz Trio.

A bit of history: Marc van Roon was born in the city of The Hague in The Netherlands in the year 1967. Marc began classical piano lessons at the age of ten. His interest in jazz and improvisation was sparkled at a young age by Marc's father Wouter van Roon, a professional jazz pianist. He studied music privately until the age of sixteen when he enrolled in the music program at the Royal Music Conservatory in The Hague. He graduated in 1991 and left for a post conservatorial study to New York City. There he studied with jazz pianists Barry Harris and Richie Beirach. He returned to The Netherlands in 1993 and started his own trio. At that time he co-founded the creative artistic consultancy group Art in Rhythm. From 2001 onward he started to give lecture based learning experiences for audiences around the world.

Ensembles and Orchestras
Marc co-leads the successful European Jazz Trio - a trio that crosses the boundaries between jazz, classical and pop music with surprising results. Three Cd's have already been awarded the swing Journal Gold Disc award. With bass player Frans van der Hoeven and drummer Roy Dackus he records and performs with the trio for many years. Their collaboration with the Japanese label M&I dates from the beginning of 2000. The tours brought them to prestigious concert classical music halls as Suntory Hall and Bunkyo Civic Concert Hall in Tokyo.

Marc recorded many CD's as a leader for his own independent label Apple on the Moon.

Teaching
Marc van Roon founded the organization 'Art in Rhythm' together with percussionist Joshua Samson in '96. 'Art in Rhythm' is now a multinational training organization designing and running creative learning and performance programs through the utilization of the art of music and improvisation for groups and organizations in organizational change and development processes. Marc & 'Art in Rhythm' have been invited to contribute to the wellbeing, growth and development of large corporations, governments, management training centers, learning communities, and think-tank centers world-wide by using the art of interactive performance, listening, creativity and improvisation.

For many years Marc van Roon, one of the founders of Art in Rhythm, has studied the universal and timeless holistic morphological principle of successful flow in action. Being an improvising musician as well as a coach in the organizational development field, he could see over and over again how a playful insight giving activity such as performing music with a group of non-musicians connects people and brings people in touch with their creative potential.

His work with Art in Rhythm has brought him to many companies and organizations world-wide. He has set up alliances and has build up creative relationships with companies like Shell International, BMW, Deutsche Bank, Bank Credit Suisse, Mercedes Benz, Saatchi & Saatchi, ABB, Royal Dutch Airlines, ABN AMRO, Price Waterhouse Coopers, ING, Arthur Anderson, Hewlett Packerd, Novartis, Orange, Swisscom to name a few. He presented at various conferences including ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) Washington '97 Dallas 2000, IAL (International Accelerated Learning Conferences) 2000, DGSL (Deutsche Gesellshaft for Superlearning) 2002, 2004, International Cybernetics Conference, Vienna 2003, Art in Business conferences, Slovenia 2002, 2003, Quantum Evolution Congress, Austria 2004, European Music Council conference, The Hague, 2004 and the ISCT Conference, Vienna, 2005

Marc has been a teacher at the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and has been a guest teacher at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Since 2001 Marc is jazz piano teacher at the Jazz Conservatory in Groningen, the Netherlands.