Biography of Sebastiaan de Grebber

Frontside of the CD Fantasia Romantica by Sebastiaan de Grebber

Sebastiaan de Grebber (1980) received his first mandolin lessons at the age of eight at the Centre for Art education 'The Muzerie' in his hometown Zwolle (The Netherlands). In 1996 he attended the 'High School for the Arts - Constantijn Huygens' dep. Conservatory to study music education and the mandolin professionally with Alex Timmerman. During these next years Sebastiaan devoted all of his time to music and participated in several international music and mandolin courses. After graduating in music education and receiving his Bachelor Degree for mandolin he focused on a future career as a professional concert mandolinist. Having given, either as a soloist or together with the Mandolin Chamber Orchestra Het Consort, many successful concerts in his own country as well as in other European countries (Sweden, Denmark, England, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and France) Sebastiaan performed an admittance concert needed for attending the Master Degree study in 2003.

The next two years he continued his mandolin studies at the highest level with Alex Timmerman at Messiaen Academie in Zwolle and with the well-known Italian mandolinist Ugo Orlandi at the Conservatorio 'C. Pollini' in Padova, Italy. On the 27th of May 2005, Sebastiaan gave his examination concert at the Messiaen Academie. The jury board, enlarged for this occasion with Maestro Orlandi, was unanimous and granted him the highest possible predicate: Master of music with distinction.

Besides being a real ambassador for the virtuosic and original Italian mandolin repertoire of the 20th Century, Sebastiaan's interest also lies in the modern music of our own time. This activity led for instance to the première of the Rhapsody for mandolin and piano (2004), a work dedicated to and composed for him by the Greek-American composer Victor Kioulaphides and the compositions The Gray Wolf (2006) for solo mandolin and Dioses Aztecas for mandolin and piano (2006) composed for Sebastiaan by the American composer John Craton. In August 2006 Sebastiaan, together with the pianist Sarah Beernink, was awarded first prize at the Amsterdam Uitmarkt Chamber Music Concours.

Momentarily Sebastiaan de Grebber gives mandolin solo recitals, concerts with Eva van den Dool, is the concertmaster of Het Consort, conducts two mandolin orchestras and teaches general music and mandolin at the Music school in Harderwijk (The Netherlands).