THIJS VAN OTTERLOO (1973) Raised a musician's son (his father was the late Dutch arranger, director and film score composer Rogier van Otterloo), Thijs's interest in music developed very early. Next to that, he seemed to have great musical ears and perfect pitch. At 12, he started to play the saxophone, infected by the David Sanborn-flu. It was also then, when he began to write his own music. At 16, he did his first conducting job (with the local Fanfare Youth Orchestra). Thijs graduated, in 1998, on Composition and Jazz Saxophone at the Utrecht Conservatory. In the mean time, he had already been assigned for many compositions and orchestral arrangements; many would follow in the years after. He also started conducting his own bigband for a period of more than ten years. Many years later, he founded his own group; having a wide classical harmonic background, complemented with a very funk-influenced timing, and inspired by great jazz soloists like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, John Coltrane etc, and with the best possible fellow musicians, he finally was able to perform his own compositions -which had become quite numerous over the years-. In 2007, 'Miles Away' is his debut album. Varying from compositions of his own (given some extra statue by a 7-face brass section), to ‘borrowed’ themes that stood the test of time, -even without their original lyrics attached to them, for example the classic Stevie Wonder tune “Happier Than The Morning Sun”- this record really is a total mix of polyfonic multi-layered complex-structured compositions (like Miles Away, Waltz For Billy or Thera), to an exposure of melodies, sung or instrumental, very easy to the ear (Once Again, YOU, Mishaela); still it holds out what the musical person Thijs van Otterloo really stands for, at that particular moment in time. It’s been 4 years now, and a lot of things in Thijs’s life have changed: one big change was the breaking-up of his marriage with Martine (in fact, they split up less than two weeks before the releaseparty of ‘Miles Away’!), and the hapilly evolving into a new relationship with Saskia, which resulted in a second marriage (2010) and even, not so long ago, the birth of a precious daughter, Fenna Justine! The second big change was Thijs getting a regular job in the wellknown Orchestra of the Royal Netherlands Airforce, as a sax player, 2nd tenor! This provided him a steady income, and above all, great improvement on the arranging skills, being so close to the fire now! A lot of pieces were written in the following years, among which 9 pieces for the Tribute 2 Michael Jackson Show (2011); Thijs’s adventures (some of them, expectably hilaric) at the Military Training School have been published on the internet in the days. Third life-changing experience could be called the meeting of, and cooperation with world class singer Gino Vannelli, which had been made possible by a friend named John Weijers; Thijs was to make 2 orchestral arrangements of two newer Vannelli songs, and the composer showed friendship and contentedness! Later on, Thijs participated several times in Vannelli’s European Tour Band, both as a solist, and brass section player! All these good lifelessons by Van Otterloo lead to a variety of new compositions, but sadly enough, id did not result in very many concerts so far! At the moment, Thijs is the musical leader of the ‘Later Als Je Bigband’, working on a 2-part saxophone composition, and working out new arrangements for next year’s ‘Planet Earth’ Show by the Airforce Orchestra. The rest remains yet to be seen!