Hi! I'm Joël Hillebrandt. I was born on June 7, 2005, and I've been enjoying playing the piano since I was five.
When I was four, I picked up a guitar for the first time and played my first few notes on it.
That same year, 2009, our family visited the Fluxus music school in Zaandam during an open house to take a look around and get some information about the instrument options for young children at the school. For me, however, it was clear almost immediately. I couldn’t tear myself away from the grand pianos. That’s why my parents decided to enroll me in the music school so I could get to know the instrument better.
I was still a little too young, though, and wasn’t allowed to start piano lessons until I was 5. That’s where my passion for music began.
I received my first piano lessons from Harry Koopman and studied with him until I was 11. Around the age of 9, I had the pleasure of being part of the Fluxus talent class.
From time to time, I participated in masterclasses with, among others, Marlies van Gent and Marjès Benoist in Keppel. I also took a number of masterclasses with piano virtuoso Wibi Soerjadi.
At age 11, I was admitted to the Young Talent Class at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and have been studying with Marianne Boer ever since. Mila Baslawskaia enthusiastically refines my tone during the masterclasses at the Sweelinck Academy.
For the 2017 program “Lang Leven de Muziek Show,” I was interviewed by Queen Maxima and wrote my own composition, “Memories,” for her. For the same program, I performed at Ahoy in December of that year for the Christmas music gala.
In 2018, I participated in the Youth Prinsengracht Concert in Amsterdam, where I played, among other pieces, Schumann’s “Hasche Mann.”
In March 2020, just as the lockdown was beginning, I was told that I was eligible for a Kawai grand piano from the NMF. I felt very privileged and am still incredibly happy about it to this day. Rachmaninoff’s music sounds even richer and more beautiful on this grand piano, standing in stark contrast to the first notes I ever played on the guitar I used to play. My passion and love for music, however, have remained the same.
