Currently in Brisbane, Australia for a PhD in composition, Dutch saxophonist/composer/arranger Marike van Dijk has divided her time working and living between New York and the Netherlands over recent years.

Her most recent album features a collaboration between 2 singer-songwriters; Jeff Taylor from New Jersey (USA) and Katell Keineg from Cardiff (UK).

Marike wrote arrangements of their songs to be performed and recorded with her large group The Stereography Project. This ‘chamber jazz ensemble’ was also featured on her last album, called The Stereography Project (BJU records, 2015).

With this recording, she made her debut as a composer, moving away from purely focusing on being a soloist.

“Marike van Dijk’s writing has an organic quality; balanced and seems to find ratios and combinations that are based in nature. I find her music very intuitive and feel that she has great honesty. This record will be just another step in a long career of composing.”

–     Pianist/arranger Gil Goldstein

In 2011, Marike moved to New York to pursue a 2nd Masters degree for which she was awarded a full scholarship by the Dutch Huygens Talent Scholarship Programme. During her studies at New York University, she started writing for her own large ensemble called The Stereography Project and she joined the BMI jazz composer’s workshop in New York. Additionally, she started working on several interdisciplinary projects as a musician and a composer; with an improvisational dance company called The Lovelies and Andy Cavatorta’s new instruments.

A versatile musician, she has performed and toured with several bigbands; European Jazz Orchestra, Jazzmania Bigband, Jazzorchestra of the Concertgebouw, Dual City Concert Bigband, Konrad Koselleck Bigband, New Cool Collective Bigband, Amsterdam Jazz Orchestra, New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra, Holland Bigband as well as many smaller jazz groups.

Prior to commencing her PhD studies in Australia in 2019, she worked as a research assistant at the Antwerp Royal Conservatoire (Belgium) and was part of the saxophone faculty at the Institut fur Music in Osnabrück, Germany for several years. Additionally, she taught workshops and classes at Codarts Rotterdam, Groningen Conservatory and Amsterdam Conservatory.