I was born on the 30th of January, 1961. My father, who played a little bit of rhythm guitar, had a great collection of jazz records, which I played endlessly as a child, especially the old 78’s. At the age of ten I developed cancer of the bone in my right arm, which had to be amputated shortly before my twelfth birthday. Several months later my parents got me my first trumpet, which I learned to play strapped in the uncomfortable contraption you see in the picture below.

Because it got in the way of my breathing and was very cumbersome to say the least, I got rid of the apparatus when I was seventeen.

After graduating from high school in 1980, I studied the Classics for a year and then Ancient History. In 1988 I graduated in that subject. During the last two years at university I discovered that I could actually make money playing the trumpet, which appealed much more to me than the prospect of teaching unmotivated children about a subject that I myself was not too interested in.

I had my share in formal music education and found it to be very useful, mainly because I knew exactly what I wanted to get out of it in the first place.