Arne
(°1971) started taking music lessons at age 8, piano lessons a few
years later. A French radio program introduced him to Duke Ellington
when he was 12; unfortunately, there was no one around to guide him
through the jazz jungle. So he studied classical piano music instead
of jazz, deciphered D7#9 on his own, played in a local big band as a
teenager, and went to university to study Germanic languages - playing
jazz in bars at night.
At
22, he enrolled in the new jazz department of the Leuven Lemmens Institute,
where he took classes from Bert Joris, Frank Vaganée, Ron van
Rossum, Philippe Aerts and Dré Pallemaerts, along with classical
harmony and solfeggio. Jazz history became a specialty. Meanwhile, he
started playing with more seasoned jazz players.
After
teaching at the Lemmens Institute for a while, he relocated to Hasselt,
where he now teaches at a music secondary school (solfeggio, jazz piano,
ear training) and at the conservatory (jazz piano and jazz history).
Arne
has worked with Henk de Laat, André Donni, Tony Ghyselinck, Marc
Godfroid, Hilde Vanhove, Robert Jeanne, Sabine Kühlich, Andres
Liefsoens, Jan Muës, Carlo Nardozza, Roderik Povel, Iris Romen,
Richard Rousselet, Joep van Leeuwen, Flor Van Leugenhaeghe, Luc Vanden
Bosch, Herman Vanspauwen, Lieven Venken, Rony Verbiest, Yvonne Walter...
His pianistic influences include Wynton Kelly, John Lewis, Red Garland,
Herbie Hancock. Apart from being a pianist, he also works as a composer,
arranger and accompanist.