CONTEMPORARY TROMBONE Matthijs van der Moolen (1994) started playing the trombone at the age of 7 with Ruud Pletting. During his last year of high school, he entered the pre-class of the Amsterdam Conservatory and had lessons with Remko de Jager. Since 2012, he is studying his bachelor Classical Trombone with Pete Saunders and Tim Dowling at the Royal Conservatoire (The Hague). Matthijs has had masterclasses with Sergio Carolino, John Kenny, Niels-Ole Bo Johansen, Ian Bousfield, Jörgen van Rijen, Blair Bollinger and Weston Sprott. Matthijs had played and is playing the 'modern' trombone in many different ensembles and orchestras, like the Young Trombone Collective (until 2014), Stichting Ars Musica and Ongestreken. For the latter he is arranging a significant part of the repertoire, since it is an unusual mixed chamber music ensemble. Furthermore, Matthijs plays as a freelancer in many different settings, for example for television- and radio-recordings of EO Nederland Zingt. As a soloist on modern instruments, he focusses on contemporary repertoire. The combination of playing both contemporary music and early music gives interesting new approaches to the performing of both genres. HISTORICAL TROMBONE At the moment, Matthijs is studying for his bachelor of Historical Trombone with Charles Toet (at the Royal Conservatoire). Tim Dowling teaches him about playing Romantic repertoire on original 19th-century trombones. Besides that he regularly follows lessons at the Utrecht Conservatory with Adam Woolf. He also had masterclasses with the Caecilia Concert. On historical trombones (Renaissance- until 19th-century-instruments), Matthijs is playing in a variety of ensembles. In 2015, he played Haydn's 'Die Schöpfung' as a project of the conservatory with the Orchestra of the 18th Century. He is also baroque trombonist for the Stichting Dutch Baroque and forms the Castello Consort together with Anne-Linde Visser and Miguel Espinoza. The Castello Consort is a young ensemble, focussing on the historical performance of 16th- and 17th-century repertoire. In the summer of 2015, they have played fringe concerts at the BRQ Festival (Finland) and at the Utrecht Early Music Festival (The Netherlands). They also performed during the Kongsberg International Organ Summer 2015 in Norway.
