When you think of an orchestra, you think classical music. That’s not the Metropole Orkest. Playing jazz, pop, world, cabaret, film scores and folk, the Metropole Orkest have shared the stage with legends such as Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Brian Eno, Pat Metheny, Stan Getz, Bono and Steve Vai. The Metropole Orkest invest just as much in playing with the next generation of stars, like Antony and the Johnsons, Snarky Puppy, Laura Mvula and Gregory Porter. The Metropole Orkest is a regular guest on The Netherlands’ main stages such as the Amsterdam Paradiso and has played both the Barbican and the Royal Albert Hall in London. The Orkest also play many festivals including North Sea Jazz, Holland Festival, Pinkpop, Lowlands and the 3FM awards, BBC Proms and Musikfest Bremen to name but a few. The Metropole Orkest has produced more than 150 albums and thousands of radio and television broadcasts, requiring over 600 arrangements per year in every imaginable style. Despite this musical versatility, people all over the world can recognise inimitable sound, style and identity of the Metropole Orkest. As the world’s leading pop and jazz orchestra, the Metropole Orkest is always looking to experiment and to be part of spectacular performances including events such as concerts in highway tunnels with Junkie XL or participation in the world’s first crowd funded opera videogame! The Metropole Orkest moves audiences. That is, after all, the real purpose of music.

Piet Noordijk studied at the Rotterdam Conservatory between 1950 and 1954. He graduated cum laude on clarinet. On alto saxophone he is self-taught. In the beginning of the Fifties, Noordijk (1932) got hooked on jazz music. His main influence was Charlie Parker. During the second world war by the German occupation it was forbidden to listen to jazz music in public. That didn’t prevent Noordijk’s elderly brothers from playing jazz at home. Music was what kept the Noordijk family going. After the war, Piet started studying the clarinet at the Rotterdam Conservatory. To his disappointment, at that time, there was no possibility to study jazz at the Conservatory. Piet had to wait until the Fifties, when he started playing in nightclubs, with a varied repertoire. He got more and more studio jobs, and ended up working as a studio musician. In the Sixties, Noordijk played with the legendaryMischa Mengelberg/Piet Noordijk Quartet. In 1965 he was awarded the Wessel Ilcken Award, an important jazz award in The Netherlands. In 1978 he became lead alto player with the Metropole Orchestra, and a much sought-after soloist. He played under conductors such as Enrico Morricone, Robert Farnon, Rogier van Otterloo, Jerry van Rooyen, Rob Pronk and Henk Meutgeert. He remained with the orchestra until 1992. He was also a frequent guest with other (television) orchestras like The Skymasters and The Ramblers. During the North Sea Jazz Festival 1987 Piet Noordijk was awarded with the prestigious Bird Award. August 2000 he was a guest at the ‘’Charlie Parker Jazz Festival’’ in New York. In 2008 Piet received the Edison Oeuvre Award. He has played with numerous American musicians such as Thad Jones, Ben Webster, Clark Terry, Ray Brown, Wynton Marsalis, Benny Carter, Dexter Gordon, Lee Konitz, Oliver Nelson, Slide Hampton, Hank Mobley and many, many more.