A lifelong musician Boris Schmidt only found his way to the double bass at the age of 19 under the tutelage of Marc Demuth. One year later he went on to study under Hein van de Geyn and Fans van der Hoeven at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague where he obtained a bachelor diploma. Since then he has established himself as a mainstay of the Belgian jazzscene while simultaniously touring the world with baroque ensemble L’Arpeggiata. After recording over 25 CDs as sideman, the album "Now" marks his debut as a bandleader and composer.
Carnegie Hall (NY), Walt Disney Hall (LA), Wigmore Hall (UK), Hong Kong City Hall (HK), Salle Gaveau (FR), Théâtre des Champs-Elisées (FR), Romanian Athenaeum Bucharest (RO), Teatro Palace of Sintra (PT), Bodrum Music Festival (TR)
: PRESS QUOTES
"...an excellent composer, and with his band he makes magnificent laid-back jazz that is very exciting and fascinating.[...] Relaxed music, but if you listen carefully there is a lot to discover, especially after repeated listening. An adventurous bass player this Boris Schmidt from Luxembourg. Nice record!" - Moors Magazine
"Bassist Boris Schmidt provided a rock solid footing upon which the others could build, but one loosened with rhythmic restlessness and spontaneous flourishes, the tone ever rich and full. Schmidt sashayed effortlessly from backdrop to foreground. Taking his turn in a strikingly inventive stream of instrumental obbligati[...]Schmidt astonished with his agility and dexterity". - Concert review, Wigmore Hall, London.
"The rhythm section, with Boris Schmidt on double bass and Toon Van Dionant on drums, not only perfectly supported Vila's compositions, but proved also essential to the overall sound. Let's not forget to mention the beautiful bass solo by Schmidt at the end of the second set." - Concert review, Mark Van Mullem
: BIOGRAPHY
Boris Schmidt was born in Luxembourg in 1983 and began playing music at the age of 7. He started out with saxophone, soon followed by piano and harmony. Starting in 1998 he attended jazz saxophone workshops in Rossignol (Belgium) with Alexandre Plumacker , Nicolas Dory, Jacques, Pirotton and André Klenes as his first teachers. Self-taught on electric bass since 1999, it was not until 2002 that he got started on double-bass, which was then taught to him by Marc Demuth. The double bass quickly became his instrument of choice, and from 2003 on, Boris has attended lessons at the Royal Conservatory of Den Haag (NL), studying with the likes of Hein van de Geyn, Frans van der Hoeven, Uli Glaszmann, John Ruocco and Eric Ineke and obtaining his bachelor of music degree in 2007. He is now mainly active as a jazz musician in the Be-Ne-Lux area, but also ventures into different musical realms like for example early music with the wildly successful group “l'Arpeggiata” (Erato/Warner, Virgin) with which he has been routinely touring most prestigious venues like Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Wigmore Hall (London) or Carnegie Hall (New York) for over 12 years. He has also proven himself as a efficient, reliable, versatile replacement bassist for many bands with minimal prep time (Anoo, Jazzstation BigBand, Stephane Mercier, Anu Junnonen Trio, Lift, Sofia Ribeiro, Reis/Demuth/Wiltgen, Greg Lamy etc). He also occasionally teaches jazz workshops in Belgium. Musicians Boris has performed with include Erwin Vann, Michel Pils, Ro Gebhardt, Didier Lockwood, Eef Albers, Randy Brecker, Felix Simtaine, Steve Houben, Philippe Jaroussky, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Quentin Dujardin, Gianluigi Trovesi, Avi Avital …
