“Incredibly versatile, deeply devoted to music, overwhelming, and an excellent trombonist” – Jury of the Grachtenfestival Award
Arjan Linker (2000) is a Dutch composer and trombonist, specialising in North Indian Classical music. Coming from a background in classical music and a widespread interest he developed himself into a versatile musician working as a composer, trombonist, arranger and improviser in a variety of projects. His music reminds of impressionism, minimal music and early baroque, as well as hip-hop, jazz and metal.
Linker’s fascination for Indian music began during his studies and he started learning intensively with two masters, Ustad Sabir Khan and Vidushi Tulika Ghosh. After travelling to India multiple times, years of lessons and devotion towards Indian music, Linker is now considered part of the musical families of his gurus. Ever since, Indian music has been a big part of Linker’s musical language: in his composed music he inspires western musicians with raga, and he is the first ever trombonist to perform Indian classical recitals.
With Linker’s broad musical background comes a diverse body of work, stretching from raga to counterpoint and from groove to rich orchestration. His pieces have been performed by orchestras and ensembles like the Noord Nederlands Orkest, the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble and the Ricciotti Ensemble. His work has been performed in all major Dutch concert halls and multiple works have been recorded. Besides his work as a composer, Linker is a sought-after arranger. His arrangements are performed in most of the concerts of the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, the Dianto Reed Quintet and his own Nymphéas Trombone Quartet.
As a trombonist Linker plays different genres of music: as a chamber musician he performes contemporary, classical and early music with Insomnio, the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble and the Nymphéas Trombone Quartet. With groups like Nachtlicht Ensemble and Collective Move he is active in improvised music, often incorporating live electronics. However, as a performing musician, his biggest focus remains his solo recitals playing Indian Classical music with tabla players like Niti Ranjan Biswas and Imran Khan.
For his work as a composer, trombonist and improvisor Linker has been awarded the Grachtenfestivalprijs 2025, the Prijs voor Jong Talent 2023 from Kunst aan de Dijk Kortenhoef, a second prize at the Prinses Christina Compositieconcours, the Koninklijk Conservatoriumprijs voor jonge componisten, he won the composition contest of the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble and was awarded the prizes for culture of the municipality of Emmen and the province of Drenthe. In 2021-2022 he was a new maker in residence for the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam.
Linker studied classical composition and classical trombone at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with teachers Richard Ayres, Wim Henderickx, Willem Jeths, Meriç Artaç, Pierre Volders, Remko de Jager, Jörgen van Rijen and Bart van Lier.