“Sometimes veiled, then supportive, and other times contrasting.”
Trumpeter, composer, and improviser Koen Smits (Tilburg, 1991) navigates between diverse worlds, always in search of musical adventure. His first major exploration was with the group Mudita (alongside vocalist Sanne Rambags and pianist Sjoerd van Eijck). The debut album, “Listen to the Sound of the Forest,” was awarded an Edison (Dutch Grammy) and was followed by concerts both domestically and internationally.
Koen’s playing eludes classification within a single genre, and he is not fond of confining himself to labels. He has engaged in numerous collaborations with artists such as Eric van der Westen, Sjoerd van Eijck’s, OAK, Kika Sprangers, Gulli Gudmundsson, and Jeroen van Vliet. Additionally,
Koen is affiliated as a professor Trumpet Jazz & Pop at the University of the Arts Utrecht, serves as a trumpeter and booker for the Paradox Jazz Orchestra, is an audio engineer at Studio de Vijver, plays with his hornsection The Hornaments for television and recordingstudios and acts as a substitute for the famous Dutch Metropole Orkest.
