Luc Houtkamp

Born in 1953 in Den Haag, Netherlands, saxophonist, composer, and improviser Luc Houtkamp has worked with many renowned musicians and innovators around the world. Although essentially self-taught, Houtkamp did study in his hometown at the Vrije Academie in the early '70s. While there, he met many esteemed electronic composers such as Tony van Campen, Michel Waisvisz, and Gilius van Bergeijk, with whom he would later collaborate. Throughout the mid-70s, Houtkamp performed in various groups, including lineups with Sven-Ake Johansson and John Russell. At the end of the '70s, he became active with composer van Bergeijk and in Klimaat, a group with Jan DenBoer and Maartje ten Hoorn that continued until 1984. A year after the inception of Klimaat, Houtkamp also became a member of the saxophone quartet Hommage, which included Michael Mast, Andre Goudbeek, and John Ruocco. The mid-'80s saw Houtkamp travel to Australia with the Relative Band, and perform in a trio and quartet with Han Bennink, Ernst Reijseger, and Konrad Bauer. His involvement in these two groups continued until 1989, when Houtkamp joined Wolfgang Fuchs' King Ubu Orchestra. During the late '80s and early '90s, Houtkamp also performed in trios with Alex Maguire and Willi Kellers, and Horst Rickels and Greetje Bijma. He remained in the King Ubu Orchestra until 1992, and the following year performed in a trio and quartet with Carl G. Beukman, Gert-Jan Prins, and Johannes Bauer. During 1994, Houtkamp performed in a duo with Nicolas Collins. Since 1989, Houtkamp has gone on solo tours almost annually, traveling to Germany, Lithuania, France, Switzerland, and the U.S. on at least four separate occasions. He is a practitioner of extended saxophone techniques, as well as a composer of electronic and computer music, which he first became involved in during the mid-'80s. Houtkamp has run two different labels: his LP imprint, Ooyevaer Disk, and his more recent CD label, X-OR. He serves as new music advisor to his hometown's new music concert venue, the Den Haag Korzo theater, and has been workshop leader and guest lecturer at many institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Stuttgart's Hochshule für Musik, Oakland, CA's Mills College, the Royal Conservatory of Den Haag and UPenn, Edinboro. Houtkamp has performed at such prestigious new music festivals as the North Sea Jazz Festival, London's Company Week, the October Meeting in Amsterdam, Vancouver's Du Maurier Jazz Festival, and more.