Bio

I am a Dutch-American composer, born in the Netherlands in 1953. I immigrated to the United States in 1982 and have been living in Southern California ever since.

My earliest musical memory is of the local marching band parading down the street in my hometown of Amersfoort. I begged my parents to join the band, but I was too young. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I was allowed to join as a drummer.

My high school music teacher, Magda Evertse, was struck by my drive for music and strongly urged me to pursue a professional music education. She gave me free piano lessons to prepare me for admittance into the Utrecht Conservatory.

At the Conservatory, I studied classical piano with Ria Groot, harmony and counterpoint with my favorite teacher Jan Jansen, and later, composition with Hans Kox. While pursuing my studies, I developed an educational Blues and Jazz method which led me to become a teacher from 1978 to 1982 at the Conservatory’s newly established Jazz Department. 

After moving to Los Angeles, I began soaking up the music of the American jazz scene. I met jazz pianist Rick Helzer, whose advanced jazz harmony knowledge made me immediately sign up for one of his piano classes. We are still friends today; I have immense respect for him. During this period, I started playing my own jazz/fusion compositions in the local clubs with a lot of different jazz musicians. One of these musicians was percussionist Steve Reid who brought me into his recording studio projects. Steve also introduced me to TV/Film composer Dan Foliart and I ended up working for him as well. For the next 15 years, Dan gave me a full-time job playing keyboards on many popular TV shows, including Cheers, five seasons of Roseanne, and all episodes of Home Improvement.

In the late 1990's, I gradually transitioned from a studio musician to a TV/Film composer, lucky enough to write music for over 100 films and TV series, starting with Playboy and the History Channel. In 2000, I started a production company, Elite Source Music, through which I have been able to license my music in movies, such as Hannah Montana: The Movie, X-Men Origins, The Simpsons Movie, Hangover III, and the WB TV series Gilmore Girls.                                 

Besides writing for film and television, I am currently pursuing my other passion for composing performance pieces, such as Birds and Spring. I'd like to thank everyone who listens to, plays, and performs my music: from home videos on YouTube to stage performances around the world, I am grateful to all of you!

-Herman