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About Michiel
Michiel Braam studied at ArtEZ Arnhem Jazz & Pop from the very start of that program in 1982, after which he became head of that same program and currently serves as director of the ArtEZ conservatory in Arnhem. His career has been marked by a relentless drive to build ensembles, compose daring works, and push the boundaries between composition and improvisation.
In 1986 he founded two bands: Bik Bent Braam, with Angelo Verploegen, Eric Boeren, Wolter Wierbos, Peter Haex, Carl Ludwig Hübsch, Peter van Bergen, Jan Willem van der Ham, Bart van der Putten, Frans Vermeerssen, Frank Gratkowski, Jörg Brinkmann and Michael Vatcher, and Bentje Braam. A year later, in 1987, Braam was commissioned by the NOS to compose ""Cows and Beasts"", a work for four clarinets and piano, performed by Braam on piano with clarinetists Ab Baars, Theo Jörgensmann, Michael Moore and Louis Sclavis.
In 1989 he founded Trio BraamDeJoodeVatcher, with Wilbert de Joode and Michael Vatcher, a formation that still performs worldwide today. In 2005 he launched eBraam, formerly known as the Wurli Trio, with Pieter Douma and Dirk-Peter Kölsch, and in 2011 he assembled Michiel Braam's Hybrid 10tet, combining eBraam with the classical Matangi String Quartet, Taylor Ho Bynum, Carl Ludwig Hübsch and Nils Wogram. In 2015 the trio Nos Otrobanda was formed, with Aty de Windt on bass and André Groen on güira, a band that specialises in Antillean music.
Together with Frans Vermeerssen he co-leads the sextet All Ears, with Herb Robertson, Frank Gratkowski, Wilbert de Joode and Michael Vatcher. He has also worked with musicians such as George Lewis, Benjamin Herman, Han Bennink, Conny and Hannes Bauer, and Steve Argüelles.
The orchestra Bik Bent Braam was considered one of the leading large ensembles in the field of improvisation music and performed worldwide, as the trio BraamDeJoodeVatcher continues to do. In 2007 Braam composed ""Nopera"", a form of music theatre in which the written parts could be performed at random and contained ample room for improvisation, with a libretto written in the invented ""Nothingyettish"" language.
In 2012 Bik Bent Braam came to an end, and a septet named Flex Bent Braam took its place. In 2013 the first program of that band, ""Lucebert"", was presented on stage and released as an album. In 2015 eBraam recorded ""The Extraordinary Love Story of Aye Aye and Fedor"", with singer Dean Bowman as narrator, based on Ana Isabel Ordonez's children's book, as part of a larger project involving dance and fine art.
In 2016 Reeds & Deeds was founded, with Frans Vermeerssen, Alex Coke, Bo van de Graaf, Arjen Gorter and Makki van Engelen. This sextet plays the music of Roland Kirk and released the album ""Live at JazzCase"" in 2019.
In 2020 it was 25 years since Bik Bent Braam performed the program ""The XIJZ of Bik Bent Braam"". A special Latin version of this program toured during the anniversary year, performed by the new 13-piece ensemble Son Bent Braam, including Angelo Verploegen, Joël Botma, Ilja Reijngoud, Efe Erdem, Efraïm Trujillo, Bart van der Putten, Frans Vermeerssen, Jesse Schilderink, Aty de Windt, André Groen, Danny Rombout and Martin Gort, under the title ""El XYZ de Son Bent Braam"".
Over the decades, Braam has issued roughly 40 albums and written numerous compositions for his own projects as well as for third parties, establishing a substantial and distinctive body of work. In 1988 he was honoured with the Podium prize, and in 1997 he was awarded the VPRO/Boy Edgar Prijs, the Netherlands' foremost jazz oeuvre prize, cementing his reputation as one of the most original voices in European improvised music.