Wietse Voermans’s work, as a saxophonist, composer and improviser, encompasses a variety of settings. Most of Wietse’s activities in recent years have been exploring different approaches of composing, playing and fulfilling multidisciplinary projects. He enjoys discovering new possibilities and developing a different understanding of his saxophone. On that account he never shies to take up a challenge and therefor is known for a unique sound and style. He writes compositions for the projects Spoken (where he has a leading role) and Vehikel. Furthermore he has composed for film, art, theatre and other ensembles.

 

Wietse Voermans graduated at Codarts (the jazz academy of Rotterdam) in 2015 after finishing his final year of the master in saxophone and composition at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen .In 2016 he made it to the finals of the Erasmus Jazz Prize with Quartzite 4tet where he personally won the prize for ‘best soloist’. In 2017 he won the Keep an Eye the Records competition with his ensemble Spoken. In 2018 he got selected for the Pack Project of Jazz International (a carte blanche for Festival Jazz International). And in 2022 he was one of the ten composers who got selected for De Week van de Jazz Compositieopdracht (The Week of the Jazz Composition assignment).

 

In recent years Wietse has toured all over Europe​ with various collaborations and he has established a leading or sideman role within several interesting projects varying from multidisciplinary free-impro to contemporary composed music projects.  These are all mainly leaning towards the left-of-center jazz, contemporary, improv genre within the jazz scene.