Biography

Geert De Vos started his musical studies at the age of eight at the municipal music academy in Aartselaar, Belgium. Two years later he began to play the tenor trombone and another four years later he switched over to the bass trombone. His teacher was Mark Joris. When he was sixteen, he went to the "Kunsthumaniora" of the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven, Belgium. At this time he also joined the Symphonic Youth Orchestra of Flanders under the leadership of Robert Groslot and in the summer of ’94 and ’95 he joined in the Young Philharmonic of Belgium where he played under Peter Hirsch and Yvan Fisher. In '95 Geert went to the Lemmensinstituut to start his higher education in the tromboneclass of Michel Tilkin. He graduated in 2001 after obtaining First Prizes in Bass Trombone, Chamber Music and Solfège. In 2002 he obtained his Masters Degree bass trombone with the highest distinction.

During this periode a lot of things had happened:

• In ’95 he passed the auditions for the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and went on tour with them in that year as well as in ’96. Conductors there were James Judd, Bernard Haitink, Claudio Abbado.
• Geert obtained his diploma "Teaching Musician" at the Sweelinck Conservatory Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
• In ’96 he won the auditon for substitute bass trombone with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, where he played under Valéry Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Simon Rattle, ...
• For a few years Geert was the bass trombonist of Brass Band Midden-Brabant, conducted by Benny Wiame.
• As a free-lance bass trombonist he played regularly in different professional orchestra’s and ensembles as: VRO - Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven Academie, I Fiamminghi, Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège, Prometheus Ensemble, Flemmish Opera Foundation, I Solisti del Vento, ...
• Since '96 Geert is the principal bass tromboneplayer of the Wim Mertens Ensemble.
• Since april ’97 Geert is the principal bass tromboneplayer of the Belgian National Opera "La Monnaie" (chief conductor: Kazushi Ono).

In 2000 Geert founded together with Ben Haemhouts (Principal Trombone Bamberger Symfoniker) and Jan Smets (Principal Trombone Belgian National Opera "La Monnaie") a trombonetrio expanded with piano and percussion named "The Bone Project".

Geert is bass trombonist with "Belgian Brass", a brass ensemble that consists of 10 of the most prominent brass players and 2 percussionists of Belgium.

As a soloist Geert is active in all kind of orchestra's.

Geert De Vos plays:

• a Yamaha bass trombone YBL-822G with a Yamaha 60B bass trombone mouthpiece
• a Bach bass trombone with a Laskey 85MD bass trombone mouthpiece
• a Thein model Ben Van Dijk contrabass trombone with a "Spezial Bruno Tilz KB1" mouthpiece
• a Meinl barocque and classic bass sacqueboute with a Van der Heijden mouthpiece