PROFESSIONAL GUITAR PLAYER FROM AMSTERDAM
Richard has been playing guitar professionally for over 40 years and has recorded and/or played with Scott Henderson, Frank Gambale, Scott Kinsey, Dan Gilbert, Carl Verheyen, Michael Angelo Batio, Marco Minnemann, Steve Hunt, Allan Holdsworth, Shawn Lane, Brett Garsed, Gary Husband, Jimmy Johnson, Derek Sherinian, Carl Verheyen, Kiko Loureiro, Greg Howe, Guthrie Govan, Virgil Donat, Dweezil Zappa, Eric Gales, a.o.!
EDUCATION
Started playing at age 10 and at age 17, started his studies at the Royal Conservatory in Amsterdam for 6 years, graduated with a ’10’ and studied for a year at GIT in Los Angeles in 1994.
While in LA., recorded the fusion classic ‘Generator’ (first titled ‘Truth In Shredding II’ by Mark Varney) for Mark Varney’s legendary Legato Label at age 22. That cd also featured Scott Henderson, Frank Gambale, Carl Verheyen, Scott Kinsey.
Performed two years in a row (2010 and 2011) at the Ziua Chitarelor Festival in Bucharest with Andy Timmons, Greg Howe, Guthrie Govan, Brett Garsed, Mattias Eklundh.
Taught and performed live with Allan Holdsworth and Kiko Loureiro at the ESC 2011 festival in Sicily, Italy!
MANY PRICES
He was the 4th price winner of the worldwide Yamaha Band Explosion contest at the Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan in 1989.
In 1993, out of 350 entries, Richard became the 2nd price winner of the Ibanez Guitar Award at the finale in Ahoy, Rotterdam! Voted ‘Guitarist Of The Year’ in two different categories (best ‘overall’ and best ‘jazz-fusion’) for more than 5 years in a row by Guitarist Magazine, earning him the ‘Gitarist Of The Year 2024’ award again!
SOME OF HIS WORK
In 2010, Richard headlined the ‘Meeting Of The Spirits’ festival in Leewarden, Holland together with Greg Howe and Carl Verheyen.
Richard has performed on the Weaveworld trilogy from keyboard prodigy Lalle Larsson (ranking #3 best keyboardist in 2011 Keyboardmagazine polls).
Richard has done three tours throughout Holland and Germany in 2011 and 2012 with Guthrie Govan and Jose de Castro as a ‘rock-blues-fusion G3’ project.
Released three instructional DVD’s for TrueFire: ‘Scale Creativity’, ‘Chord Creativity’ and ‘Creative Lick Phrasing.
Was invited three times by Dweezil Zappa to join him onstage during his European tours, twice in a sold out Melkweg, Amsterdam (2013 and 2015) and once at a sold out Tivoli, Utrecht (201
Voted ‘Guitarist Of The Year’ in two different categories (best ‘overall’ and best ‘jazz-fusion’) for 5 years in a row by Guitarist Magazine, earning him the ‘Gitarist Of The Year 2021’ award.
Also voted ‘Guitarist of The Year 2022’ by Gitarist Magazine the next year, by being voted #1 in all categories again.
Performed live with Scott Henderson and Frank Gambale at the ‘Best Of Jazz-Rock And Fusion’ event, at Boerderij, Zoetermeer, March 12, 2022.
SHARING KNOWLEDGE
Richard teaches harmony, theory, guitar, bandcoaching at Tune Up music school in Haarlem. Richard also gives E-Lessons worldwide. Look for more info at his website.
Most of all he is a very nice person and a good beer brewer! Did you ever tasted a real Hallebeer? We did! Was gooooooood!
Richard is playing with the Shredder 3.5 mm.
