Bio.

Maarten Taelman, born in Deinze, started taking his first music lessons at the private music school of his uncle Donald de Backer (Tenor Flemish Operahouse). During his youth Maarten also played bass guitar where through playing in jazz and rock bands he discovered a love for different styles of music on bass guitar and at the age of 18 starting with double bass. At the age of 23  Maarten started the classical double bass training at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent with Frank Coppieters where he completed his Bachelor’s degree in 2016.
 

During his studies Maarten played in numerous projects and youth orchestra’s. He attended the Sligo jazz Festival where he got masterclasses with John Goldsby (West Deutsche Rundfunk Bigband) and regularly followed jazz sumercamps and studied fulltime for one year jazz bass at the private jazz school Jazz BXL with Bass Cooijmans. Other masterclasses in jazz he followed with Hein van de Geyn, Bart Denolf, Reggie Washington and many more. In 2017, after the successful audition Maarten was able to attend the Round Top Festival Institute in Texas (United States) where he could work with the festival orchestra for 6 weeks and was principal bassist of one of the productions. He participated in numerous chamber music projects and got masterclasses led by James VanDemark and Brett Shurtliffe.
 

Through his career as a freelance musician Maarten had the opportunity to play in orchestra’s led under the direction of Philipe Herreweghe, Edo de Waart, Alexander Joel, Dirk Brossé, Christian Arming, Perry So, Yaniv Dunor. He was able to accompany classiscal soloists such as; Boris Belkin, Andrea Bocelli, Daniel Blumenthal, Francois Dumont, Ludvig Gudim, Henry Raudales, Régis Pasquier and pop artists such as; The Beach Boys, Chaka Khan, Joe Jackson, Rodger Hodgson, Joss Stone, Melanie C, Peter Cetera, John Miles, Natalie Imbruglia, Tom Chaplin, Natasha Bedingfield, Gabriel Rios and many more. Through the love for orchestra playing he was able to play numerous concerts in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourgh, France, Germany, China and the United States.

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Currently Maarten is playing on an unknown Bohemian 4-string double bass. He has a historical French Charles Nicolas Bazin and a modern Claude Marchand bow. He owns a fender squire bass guitar upgraded with Seymour W. Duncan antiquity II guitar pickups and uses a Markbass mini CMD 121p bass amp.

References.

" Maarten Taelman is a bassist of passion, dedication, intellect, and the highest technical and musical standards. His versatility, musical sincerity, and intellectual curiosity also guarantee him a distinct place among today's young artists."

James VanDemark, Professor double bass Eastman school of music​

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"I have always been impressed by the sound and capacity for abstraction in Maarten's play. He unites the quality of the classical double bass player with the sense of adventure and improvisation demanded by jazz. Alltogether he's got a great ritmic stability and he will surely be a valid musical partner." 

Giovanni Barcella, jazzdrummer

"An imaginative and creative musician equally at home in solo, chamber, and orchestral positions, Maarten Taelman is a shining example of the new wave of exciting 21st century European bassists."

Brett Shurtliffe, Associate Principal Double Bass, Buffalo Philharmonic

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"Good timing, respect for the music. With a nice concept of dynamics, he try to find new colours and concepts which gives to the music a nice touch. 

He find always his way to convert every single note in a nice word and these words in a nice frase, catching everyone’s attention and making his band colleagues to feel relax and easy to play with.

Highly recommended."

Juan Carlos Rosquete, cuban jazzmusician

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“A very good bass player with orchestra experience and very nice and flexible musician”​ 

Ioan Baranga, principal double bass Antwerp Symphony Orchestra