Pieternel Van Oers Trio
Biography Pieternel Van Oers Trio
Pieternel Van Oers
Born in 1986 in the Netherlands, Pieternel van Oers starts studying classical piano at the age of six until she is nineteen years old. Then, driven by her passion for musical improvisation, she naturally begins to study jazz and to play in several ensembles. When Pieternel arrives in Paris in 2012, she teaches the piano and continues studying jazz and composition at the Bill Evans Piano Academy with teachers Bruno Angelini, Etienne Guéreau and Joe Makholm. Currently she performs amongst others with her "Pieternel van Oers Trio" with whom she plays her compositions and arrangements for instance at the Parisian jazz clubs Sunside and Marcounet. She also performs with the singer Lana Gray, with whom she proposes a repertoire of Brazilian and jazz standards.
Pieternel started to compose in 2018, and it feels immediately like second nature to her. More of her work can be found on YouTube.
Pieternel is also a professor of piano at the Bill Evans Piano Academy in Paris.
Nicolas Signat
started playing drums at the age of 6, playing rock and blues. His interests quickly turned to music, sound and computers, which he learned on his own. After studying sound engineering, he became a sound designer for video games, a job that combines several of his passions and that he has been practicing since 2007. At the same time, the drums have always been present thanks to his practice in a metal band and then in a psychedelic rock band.
In 2012, his interest in jazz grew through the discovery of modern trios and meeting other musicians. He left the rock band in which he played and discovered the Parisian jam sessions. He then devoted himself entirely to jazz, which he learned by himself through contact with musicians and the many records he listened to. After having played in several formations in trio, quartet and quintet, 3 formations are stabilized: a trio with which he animates the jam session evenings on Thursday evening at 38Riv' (Parisian jazz club) since 2018, the Philippe Zygel Trio and the Pieternel van Oers Trio. At the same time, he also explores the possibilities of sound synthesis with a solo electro project, Anantya, for which he has released an EP "After Worlds".
Nicolas' drumming and sound focus on the intrinsic qualities of jazz: the possibilities of great dynamics, varieties of timbre, rhythms that connect to each other in pulsations that can bring a composition to life. But it is also the group sound that is of paramount importance to his ears and thus the place the drums take within the "mix", via the connection with the other musicians.
Tommaso Montagnani
Double bassist, bassist, ethnomusicologist, he studied classical double bass at the Conservatory of Siena and jazz at the Siena Jazz School, under the direction of Ferruccio Spinetti, and has worked with Bill Smith, David Linx, Alain Jean-Marie, Vincent Peirani, Kyle Gregory, Stéphane Mercier, Nico Gori, Nicola Sergio, Baptiste Herbin, Julien Daian Quintet, and Aloe Blacc. He has participated in numerous recordings and festivals in Italy, France, Germany and Brazil. He is currently a member of several jazz bands including Jean-Baptiste Berger's Persuasive project, composed of musicians from France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Italy.
He obtained a degree (Laurea) in Music History at the University of Siena (Italy) and a doctorate in Anthropology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales de Paris (EHESS). In parallel to his career as a musician, he has carried out research on the music of the Indians of the Brazilian Amazon. He was a visiting professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro where he taught courses in Anthropology of Art. He has been a researcher in Anthropology of Music at the Musée du quai Branly, the University of Paris I La Sorbonne, the Fyssen Foundation, the EHESS. He is also a draughtsman and produces posters for concerts and shows, using mixed techniques (pencils, ink, acrylic, watercolour, etc.) and digital editing and graphic design processes. He has written and produced two illustrated musical shows for young audiences.
