Michiel Borstlap

Since graduating with honors at the conservatory in 1992, the Dutch pianist Michiel Borstlap has made a mark on the international music scene. He won Prize for Best Soloist at Europe Jazz Contest in Brussels in 1992, and was the First European musician to win the Thelonious Monk/BMI Composers Award (1996). Since then Michiel Borstlap has worked closely together with artists like Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Gino Vannelli, Jimmy Haslip, Bill Bruford and most recently with Ludovico Einaudi. Borstlap has performed at major jazz festivals around the world.

His music has been praised by the New York Times (“crystalline piano playing”) and the Washington Post (“rich melody and tonal clarity of a Mozart Sonata in todays music”). He released over 20 albums in various settings and line ups on labels like Universal/Verve and has founded his own record company Gramercy Park. His compositions have been played and recorded by stellar musicians like Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter, who still perform his ‘Memory of Enchantment’ to this date. In 2007 he formed a duo with Gino Vannelli and played together around the world.

His albums ELDORADO & SOLO 2010 appeared top 20 in the Dutch Album Top 100 Chart. Since 2010 Borstlap focusses his career mainly on solo piano concerts. In 2014 the album 'Frames' is the latest in a series of solo albums. In 2014 he also joins a new band lead by the Italian composer & pianist Ludovico Einaudi, 'Le Piano Africain'. Most notably they performed in Milan for a staggering number of over 24.000 people.

Michiel is member of the Royal Academy of Arts & Science, serving as think-tank for dutch Government. Michiel Borstlap is widely considered as one of the finest pianists of Europe.