Season’s Composer Kris Defoort

Throughout his artistic life as a composer and improvising pianist Kris Defoort (1959) has swung between Classical and Jazz. After spending some time in New York, where he took masterclasses and played with some jazz greats, he returned to Belgium, where he immediately became one of the leading figures in contemporary jazz. A long relationship with De Werf – after all, he is a Bruges native – a residency at LOD muziektheater and a constant swinging back and forth between improvisation and written music, between music theatre and opera and jazz briefly outlines his career. Defoort doesn’t seek to innovate for the sake of innovating, he is not rebelling, he rediscovers rather than discovers. He consciously absorbs all available influences and experiences and integrates them into a personal idiom. This leads him to seek out musicians who are active within different musical disciplines. As an accomplished musical colourist, he therefore disposes over an absolutely unique sound palette.