Sam Gerstmans
Born on February 18, 1978, Samuel comes from a family of musicians. He started playing the violin at the age of 6 and then the trumpet at 8. He studied at the Hannut Academy where he took lessons in violin, trumpet, chamber music, instrumental ensemble and music history.
He left at the age of 17 with a medal in violin and another in chamber music. It was at this time that he started playing electric bass to play in the French song group “Ellée ou les Ostrogènes”. In 1997, at the age of 19, he became interested in jazz and enrolled at the Jazz studio in Antwerp where he took lessons with Ben Sluis, Bas Coymans, Joe Higham…
The following year (1998), he entered the Royal Conservatory of Brussels with Michel Hatzigeorgiou. It was also this year that he worked at the Théâtre des Martyrs in the play “The Taming of the Shrew”. During his studies he took lessons with Guy Cabay, Arnould Massart, Jean-Louis Rassinfosse, Phil Abraham… and won a few more theater contracts in plays such as “The Straw Hat of Italy”, “La Dispute” and ” The Master and Margueritte” it is in the latter, to music by Pascal Charpentier, that he begins playing the double bass, an instrument which will never leave him until today.
