An adventure in an infinite world, that is what music means to composer and trombonist Arjan Linker (2000). The combination of beauty and surprise, hearing something that touches you and that you have never heard before is an unforgettable experience! And after each discovery, the next one is just around the corner…

This is why Linker has been composing since a young age and is always looking for new sounds, discoveries and adventures in his music. Without losing connection with existing music; examples of major influences include Maurice Ravel, Irshad Khan, John Adams, Adriaen Willaert, J Dilla and Lili Boulanger. This leads to a wide variety in his oeuvre that ranges from hip-hop grooves to counterpoint and polyphony to soundscapes. His music has been performed in all major venues in the Netherlands by line-ups ranging from 1 to 110 musicians and has been recorded several times on CD.

As a trombonist, this search for adventure is also important to Linker. An experienced improviser with live electronics, he searches for the limits of the instrument and has given dozens of composition commissions that he plays with his ensembles. But the adventure extends beyond contemporary music: Linker likes to feed his musical vocabulary with studies of Renaissance music, pop music, music of the Middle Ages and Indian music, among others.

Since 2020, Linker has studied Hindustani (North Indian) music intensively, accompanied by his Gurus Vidushi Tulika Ghosh and Ustad Sabir Khan. Annually, he travels to Mumbai for a month to study with both of them. Thus Linker strives to become the first interpreter of Indian music on the trombone.

Linker is founder of the Nymphéas Trombone Quartet and the Nachtlicht Ensemble, and with these ensembles he creates projects in which he composes, arranges, plays and improvises. Linker also creates projects outside this context, for which he assembles new formations of musicians and visual artists.

For example, in 2021-2022 Linker was New Maker at the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam and was given carte blanche to create a performance for the festival. This resulted in the improvisation concept Time Capsules, in which the musicians capture the music of the moment through improvisation: a musical time capsule. Since childhood, Linker has had a special bond with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble. Nowadays he plays regularly with the ensemble and is also closely involved as an arranger. For example, Linker made all the arrangements for the successful tour of the Matthäus Passion and accompanies young composers in the NBE’s composition competition.
For his work as a composer, trombonist and improviser, Linker received the Prize for Young Talent 2023 from Kunst aan de Dijk Kortenhoef, a Second Prize at the Prinses Christina Composition Competition, the Royal Conservatory Prize for Young Composers, won the composition competition of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble and received the Culture Awards from the Municipality of Emmen and the Province of Drenthe.

Linker studied classical composition and classical trombone at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with principal study teachers Richard Ayres, Wim Henderickx, Willem Jeths, Meriç Artaç, Pierre Volders, Remko de Jager, Jörgen van Rijen and Bart van Lier.