Paul van der Feen

Paul van der Feen is regarded as one of Holland`s outstanding jazz saxophonists and an original voice within the Dutch musical landscape. He practically grew up playing with his brothers Mark, Matthew and Clemens with whom he formed the Feenbrothers Quartet featuring the eleven year old Paul on clarinet. At age 14 he picked up the alto sax soon whereafter he was accepted into the Amsterdam Conservatory from which he graduated -still a youngster- in 2002. After spending some time in New York, Paul explored several musical styles like hiphop/funk, Classical and world music but was drawn into Jazz by rediscovering John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter and eventually began to discard all forms of musical parochialism.

In 2004 Paul was a prize winner at the world renowned White Foundation World Sax Competition and formed the Paul van der Feen Quartet which resulted in many collaborations with Dutch jazz legends like Han Bennink en John Engels and two Deloitte Jazz Award nominations.

In 2005 Paul became an often featured member of the Metropole Orchestra and played in this role alongside Bob Brookmeyer, Herbie Hancock, Hank Jones, Al Jarreau, Gregory Porter, Maria Schneider, Robert Glasper, Joe Lovano and many others resulting in several acclaimed recordings and most notably a feature role in the Grammy Award winning Vince Mendoza arrangement on a John Scofield song.

Next to the Metropole Orchestra Paul tours and playe(s)d in many groups and project bands like the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, Clazz Ensemble, The Radio 6 session band “The Obsessions”, Clemens van der Feen Band and DJ Maestro Blue Note Trip.

In 2012 Paul started collaborating with drummer Roy Dackus with whom he formed the group “Odyssee” (featuring Paul on piano as well as saxes) and Inception which features trumpeter Alex Sipiagin.

As of 2015 Paul started studying Theology and began writing articles about the philosophical relationship between music and God.