I am a professional jazz flutist, composer, arranger and bandleader living in Cologne, Germany. I have my own jazz trio, called the "Jorik Bergman Trio". And I'm currently working on various large ensemble projects, such as my Master recital with my own big band, a tour with my octet, playing the classical minimal "organic" music of Julius Eastman called the "Julius Eastman Project" and my "Mingus Project", where we're playing Charles Mingus' 40 minute jazz suite called "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady". As a musician I of course try to challenge myself artistically as a composer and as a flute player, but also as a bandleader. With every project I try to aim higher, looking for ways to make my music and ensembles more diverse, interactive, interdisciplinary, creative and out of the box, all the while trying to still keep the musicians, myself and the audience happy.
I have been making music from a young age, and quickly learned that I really like It. Starting out on the piccolo in a local marching band I learned to play the flute quickly after. At the age of 19 I applied at the conservatory of Maastricht for composing and arranging. After studying there for a while I decided in my third year to go on an Erasmus exchange to Cologne, where I fell in love with the German jazz scene. Unfortunately Cologne did not have a bachelor program in composition so after studying there for 2 semesters I had to go back to Maastricht in order to get my bachelor diploma. In the summer of 2020 I graduated sum cum laude with a distinction "for rich and mature harmonic and motivic treatment". After that I quickly moved back to Cologne to follow a masters degree in composition and arranging with Florian Ross at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln.
Photo by Marcel Geitmann
As a composer I prefer working with larger line ups. For my first official large ensemble I got the silly idea of making a band with 5 horns, 4 part rhythm section, a classical percussionist, a vocalist and two stewardesses. With this ensemble, entitled “Tritone Airlines”, I played several concerts in Cologne and one in Maastricht. With my music I focus on telling a story. I find this to be the most interesting way of setting up a program, and a nice way to keep the music innovative and interesting while still keeping it easy to understand for the audience. For example, my airplane band “Tritone Airlines” was about the journey of a plane lifting off, getting technical difficulties, crashing, stranding and eventually finding its way up again. This got portrayed with spoken words, lyrics, outfits and naturally through the music.
Besides my infatuation with music, I have interests in chess, gaming, hanging out with friends and I'm also active as a professional model. In the course of the last few years I have written arrangements for the Subway Jazz Orchestra, the Jazzorchestra of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Bundesjazzorchester, the JugendJazzOrchester (JJO) NRW, the Klara Schumann Bigband, UniBigBand Freiburg and many big band constellations that I have organized myself. I've also been in charge of arranging, organizing, conducting and playing in the Julius Eastman Project at the 10th edition, and the Mingus Project at the 11th edition of the Weekend Festival. I've won 1st prize at the 2022 Composition Competition, Das Zerbliche Paradies, from the JJO NRW, the 2021 Composition Competition, European Composers, from the Subway Jazz Orchestra and the 2022 Composition Competition, Future Music, from the BundesJazzOrchester NRW. As a flute player I have played at well-known festivals such as the aforementioned Weekend Festival, the Nijmegen International Music Meeting Festival and the renowned North Sea Jazz festival.
Photo by Georg Valerius
My Big Band EP is out! "The Road With A Thousand Giraffes" is available on Bandcamp, and all of your favorite streaming platforms!
The next concert with my trio is coming up! On the 22th of April we will be playing at the Jazzschmiede in Dusseldorf as part of the "New Faces" concert series. See you there!
Photo by Daria Prykolota
What a pleasure it was to have two of my big band compositions played this week by the fantastic Bundesjazzorchester as a part of the "Zukunftsmusik" Project. Fantastic band!
Photo by Anna Ibelshäuser
It's been decided! On the 28th of May I will be doing my final Masters of Composition "Abschlusskonzert". It will be 2 complete sets of big band music, taking place at Stadtgarten in Cologne, concert starts at 18:00. I'm immensely excited for this one!
I've had one heck of a week in Paris, in a fantastic project with the Orchestre National de Jazz. Exhausting, but truly inspriring and immensily productive. Thanks to the Orchestre National de Jeunes for playing my music so beautifully!
Copyright © Jorik Bergman
Homepage photo by Sara Bahadori
