Lourens van der Zwaag (22) is a jazz trumpet player and has just graduated from the Bachelor's degree program at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. At the age of 11 he ended up in his first big band, where he developed under the direction of Peter Guidi (also known as the Godfather of the Amsterdam Jazz scene) into a soloist with his own sound. Since then, Lourens has played on prestigious stages such as Bimhuis, the Royal Concertgebouw and the North Sea Jazz festival. This, among other things, with special projects like the National Youth Jazz Orchestra but also with its own 12-piece brass band: Valvetronic.
In 2019, Lourens started writing his own songs for a new quartet: LOUW quartet. It soon turned out that the music is a mix of Jazz and Hip-hop, with the groove in the lead role. Inspired by what great artists like Ibrahim Maalouf, Anton Goudsmid, Robert Glasper and Louis Cole do with rhythm and groove in their music, Lourens strives for music that the audience unknowingly rocks, wobbles and taps on their seats. 'They know how to challenge themselves musically and rhythmically, without making the music more inaccessible to a large audience. That is only because there is so much soul in their game. These musicians tell a story that touches people. That is the ultimate goal and I want to achieve that with my music as well". The music Lourens recently wrote is dominated by the physical developments he has been going through for a year. Through a sport and diet program, Lourens has lost a lot of weight and has actually discovered a new physical force within himself that is adjacent to being reborn.