Thanks to several Conservatory related and personal projects with internationally acclaimed artists Joshua Redman, Jakob Bro, Logan Richardson, to name a few, Gert-Jan started gaining recognition as a promising young drummer to keep an eye on. In 2019 he was given several grants to pursue his dream to study and live in the epicenter of Jazz, New York City. Aside from studying at The New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music he got the opportunity to work with Cooper Grodin (Phantom of the Opera), Matthew Corozine, Max Light, Kris Monson, Tomer Cohen, Pablo Menares, Idan Morim, Laurent David and many others on various musical projects. In 2020 Gert-Jan returned back to Belgium and quickly became an up-and-coming emerging musician within the European Jazz scene. Gert-Jan is well known for his interest in traditional and contemporary (jazz) music, classical music, electronics, and odd meter music. However, his openness to other genres and styles of music keep him ever evolving. Recently he formed his own quartet with all-star musicians Jean-Paul Estevenart, Bram De Looze and Cyrille Obermüller where he presents original music containing a blend of contemporary jazz with a strong interest in romantic melodies, rhythmical twists and a core focus on deep listening , musicality and communication. Last year he joined the faculty of Luca School of Arts (Conservatory Lemmensinstitute) where he teaches Jazz Drums and Rhythm Classes.

“In an astonishingly short amount of time, this young drummer has established himself as an artist to be reckoned with”

                                                              - Flagey, JazzLab