Marc van Roon

Marc van Roon (born 1967 in The Hague) is a Dutch jazz pianist. He combines music performance with his work as a creative facilitator for leaders, groups and organizations in change and learning processes applying the art of improvisation as the main source of inspiration. He has composed songs and orchestra pieces for dance companies and various music ensembles and produced several CDs for other artists and his own ensembles.
Van Roon has collaborated with Dave Liebman, Clark Terry, Art Farmer, Charlie Mariano, Billy Hart, Santi Di Briano, Tony Lakatos, Michael Moore, The Netherlands Dans Theatre and Dutch jazz artists Ernst Reijseger, Tony Overwater, Wim Kegel, Jesse van Ruller, Susanne Abbuehl, Fay Claassen, Eric Vloeimans and Tineke Postma.
Van Roon began classical piano lessons at the age of ten. His interest in jazz and improvisation was sparked at a young age by his 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 studied with pianists Frans Elsen, Rob van Kreeveld, Geoffrey Douglas Madge and Lanny Kho. 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 started his own trio and continued to collaborate with other musicians. At the same time he co-founded the creative artistic consultancy group Art in Rhythm with drummer/percussionist Joshua Samson. Thereafter he started to give lecture based learning experiences for audiences around the world.