Kurt Van Herck

Because she detects, in the youngest of her three sons, an undeniable musical talent and fascination for the saxophone, Kurt’s mother sends him to the local music school and brass band. Kurt is an enthusiastic pupil and he soon understands, bright as he is, that music is an open door to the world: aged sixteen he moves to Antwerp to study at the High School of the Arts. Today, too, the mellow metropolis is his base of operations.

After the High School of the Arts, he proceeds to attend the Jazz Studio with teachers like Dennis Luxion.

But has to be, happens. Kurt nestles himself under the wings of his mentor John Ruocco, the driving force and teacher of an entire generation of Belgian saxophonists: Ben Sluijs, Frank Vaganée, Jeroen Van Herzeele, Erwin Vann, Bart Defoort.

Under John Ruocco’ s guidance Kurt finds his own breath; his own musical path. Ruocco’ s no-nonsense aproach suits Kurt fine. If you want a lesson, you call and make an appointment. But if it turns out that you haven’ t studied hard enough, you get kicked out indefinitely, even before you got yourself in in the first place.

A bit later Kurt comes into contact with Jacques Pelzer who in turn becomes an important and inexhaustable source of inspiration.