Olivier Collette

Genre

Jazz

Site Internet

http://www.oliviercollette.com

Olivier is Belgian but was born in Congo, Africa in 1973.

Soon after his birth, his parents moved back to Belgium.

He started piano on his own at the age of 11. 2 years later, he began following drums and theory lessons . Meanwhile, he was having private keyboard lessons with Bernard L’Hoir, with whom he learned a few pop/rock tunes and the basic of improvisation.

At the age of 16, he had his first one week Jazz workshop with great musicians such as Diederik Wissels, Nathalie Loriers, Michel Hatzigeorgiou, Dre Pallemaerts, Erwin Vann,…

One year later, he did another one through the Lundis d’Hortense association (belgian professional Jazz musicians).

Right after highschool, he studied one year at the Jazz Studio in Antwerp where he got Diederik Wissels as piano teacher.

Next, he followed one year of private classical lessons with Marie Boulenger and was having a hard training (practicing piano 8 hours a day).

Then, he entered the Jazz section of the Royal conservatory of Brussels for three years.During that time, he had Eric Legnini as piano teacher.

At the age of 23, he graduated from the Brussels conservatory with the 1stprize distinction.

2 years later, he moved to New-York where he got lessons from Kenny Werner and Fred Hersch. Also, he met some great musicians such as Mc Coy Tyner or Kenny Baron.