Bandleader Tony Roe (1979) studied classical piano at the Royal Conservatory Den Haag. In 2009, he graduated in jazz piano at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with honors. He also studied music technology, took a course in Graphic Design and is connected to the doctoral program ‘docARTES’ at Orpheus Institute in Gent, Belgium. His research is aimed at finding new ways of improvisation by letting moving images and other media be completely interactive with music.
At this moment Roe is active with his band Tin Men & The Telephone.

The jury motivates their decision to award him the Composition Assignment as follows: “Tony Roe’s compositions are clear and surprising. (…) He makes use of contemporary technology such as samples, sound distortion and video and mixes these with an acoustic jazz trio (piano-double bass-drums). With his band Tin Men & The Telephone, Roe releases contemporary and surprising compositions which can be considered ground-breaking.”

The Composition assignment is commissioned in collaboration with the Performing Arts Fund NL.