Biography

Born in The Netherlands in 1990, Alexander Kraft van Ermel spent his youth on the Caribbean island of Curaçao. Born into a musical family, he received his first piano lessons at an early age from his mother and subsequently from his grandfather, the celebrated composer and pianist, Wim Statius Muller.

He continued his musical studies with Alan Weiss at the Utrecht Conservatory after finishing secondary school. At age seventeen Kraft van Ermel won second prize at the Scriabin competition in Paris organized by the ‘Conservatoire Russe’. He was awarded his prize by Mikhail Voskresensky who proclaimed, “such big music from such a small island”.

Indeed, Curaçao possesses a rich and diverse music scene, of which many of the classical Antillean compositions have been taken into Kraft van Ermel’s vast repertoire.

He was invited to perform the Antillean works for the second edition of the “Chopin in the City” festival in Chicago, and has given concert- lectures in the Bahamas, and the Netherlands.