André van Berlo

Born in the Netherlands, January 14th 1976, André grew up in an environment filled with music but it took him more than 16 years to discover his passion for it. After his first contact with the guitar, he was 16 years old at the time, André didn’t waste any time and studied for many hours a day not being able to set the instrument aside even if it would be for just a brief moment. About 4 years later he got admitted to the Conservatory in Hilversum (now known as the Amsterdam Conservatory) where he studied with people like Peter Mingaars, Henk Sprenger, Theo de Jong and Johan Plomp. After one year André felt that he wanted more than ‘just jazz’ so he switched to the Conservatory in Rotterdam where he found all that he was looking for. Being able to expand his horizon and study music like Jazz, Latin, Tango, MPB, Salsa, Flamenco, Classical and much more, it was there where he founded his unique way to cross-over music in his compositions. Here he studied with Paul Hock, Ronald Schmitz, Ed Verhoef, Ben de Bruin, Klaus Flenter, Kay Sleking, Ana Elis de Jong and many others and had his first contact with music from his biggest musical influences: Paquito d’Rivera; Ray Barretto; Brecker Brothers; T.O.P.; Astor Piazzolla and others. After graduating for his bachelor’s degree in 2003 and for his master’s degree in 2005 he set himself to spread his music all over the world and with great success! His project called Panchito, a ten men strong Latin Jazz orchestra, released its debut album in 2006. This release featured André’s compositions and has become a true success story. Being aired on radio stations world wide; played on US national radio; and charm all music critics around the world, the music conquered the hearts of all music lovers. In 2005 André joined Carel Kraayenhof’s sexteto Canyengue, a group that plays primarily music by Piazzolla and other Tango greats, with which he toured through e.g. the Netherlands, Germany and Switserland. show native description