Bo Van der Werf

Bo Van der Werf, a saxophonist and composer from Brussels, is a graduate of the Amsterdam Conservatory (U.M/D.M) and recently obtained a Doctor of Arts degree with a thesis entitled “Les petits pays colorés: adding the colours of Messiaen to jazz improvisation and composition”, Doctor of Arts, University of Leuven, Faculty of Arts, successfully defended in November 2023.

Bo Van der Wer is an artist-in-residence at Le Petit Faucheux in Tours (2024–2025), working on projects including ‘EARTH TALK’, which combines music, neuroscience and eco-acoustics, ahead of a tour in 2025–2026 (JAZZDOR Strasbourg, Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Reims, Tours, Brest, Noirlac, Lyon).

He is the artistic director of Octurn, a contemporary jazz ensemble based in Brussels. As an avant-garde group, Octurn has long been a key figure in the world of contemporary jazz. Octurn traverses the European musical landscape by blending aesthetics and experimenting with multifaceted music, built on interdependent and interwoven structures, based on indeterminacy and impermanence, thus opening up a vast space for sonic meditation. 

To date, the Octurn ensemble has recorded 16 albums and performed at some of the world’s leading festivals: Toronto Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Calgary Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Ottawa Jazz Festival, Jazz Middelheim, Texaco Jazz Festival of New York, Audi Jazz Festival, Jazz XL Paris, Jazz à Junas, Jazz à Vannes, Trytone Jazz Festival Amsterdam/Rotterdam, Jazz in Duketown Den Bosch, Jazzdor Strasbourg, Flemish Jazz Meeting, Jazz Brugge, Jazz in’t Park Gent, Girona Jazz Festival, Jazz à la Villette Paris, F-IRE festival London, Budapest Jazz Festival, Gaume Jazz festival, Festival de l’Atlantique (Brest), Prague Jazz Festival, Les Détours de Babel (Grenoble), November Music Festival (NL), Festival Onzeheuresonze Paris, Klaeng Festival Cologne, Jazzdor Berlin.

Bo Van der Werf is a founding member of the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, which collaborates and records with some of today’s leading jazz artists (Maria Schneider, Joe Lovano, Kenny Werner, Dave Liebman, etc.).

As well as performing regularly with these groups, he works as a freelance musician or as a guest artist on various projects. He leads his own sextet, ‘Mantra Magnets’, and performs in a duo with Jozef Dumoulin, with Septych (pianist Bram De Looze’s septet), Sylvain Cathala’s septet, saxophonist Alexandra Grimal’s ensemble ‘Dragons’, drummer Dré Pallemaerts’ project ‘Seva’, and drummer Vincent Sauve’s project ‘la forêt dans les villes’.

He took part in Stéphane Payen’s workshop, EGGS STAIRS AND SHELLS (with Elias Stemeseder, Felix Henkelhausen and Samuel Ber). Bo Van der Werf also composes:

- for dance (see ‘Eva Millenium’ by the Vicente Saez Valencia company, etc.)

- for theatre (e.g. ‘Le soleil même pleut’ by La Cerisaie/Françoise Berlanger, 2010, etc.)

- for contemporary music ensembles (e.g. ‘Gamelan’, in collaboration with the Ictus ensemble, Ars Musica Festival 2009; ‘Sphères croisées’, in

collaboration with the Musiques Nouvelles ensemble, Ars Musica Festival 2020, etc.)

- for multimedia projects (‘Devotion’, in collaboration with the cult American experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky) (Bozar 2013), ‘Melodies

from my mother’s knees’, in collaboration with the video artist Boris Van der Avoort and the London-based electronic musician Mira Calix-WARP (2011)

- for cinema (composition of the soundtrack for Frédéric Louf’s first feature film, “J’aime regarder les filles”, in collaboration with Jozef

Dumoulin, produced by ‘Les Films de Pierre’, distributed by BAC FILMS, April 2012

Bo Van der Werf directed a documentary about the Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray entitled “Manikda, My Life with Satyajit Ray” (co-produced by Neon Rouge Prod, the CBA and the RTBF), for which he also composed the music. The film has been screened at numerous festivals (Tiburon Film Festival, Tehran Film Festival, Paris Film Festival, Bombay Film Festival, Calcutta Film Festival, Mediawave Film Festival Budapest, Buenos Aires Film Festival…). 

Bo van der Werf teaches in the jazz departments of the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles and the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, and is regularly invited to the Conservatoire of The Hague and the Paris Conservatoire for masterclasses.