olaf fase

Ever since Olaf started drumming, playing along with other percussionists has attracted him. He worked with different drummers during projects on numerous occasion, but unfortunately that was all temporary. Therefore he was overjoyed to be allowed to join Slagerij Van Kampen on May 1 2014!

Olaf got his first drumsticks on his twelfth birthday. He auditioned for the Music and Dance Havo after having received drumming lessons for several years. He was accepted and completed this school successfully. After that he won a scholarship to study at the Drummers’ Collective in New York in 1995. He was taught by drummers that played with the biggest names in the music world (amongst others Paul Simon, Cindy Lauper, Michel Camilo and John Scofield). After returning from New York Olaf was accepted at the Rotterdam Conservatory and graduated in 2002 with a top grade. He also won the Tama Drummers Award, a talent scouting contest for drummers in the Benelux.

Olaf started energetically and worked together with, among others, Wouter Hamel, Laura Jansen, Franklin Brown, Maxine, Berget Lewis, Jacqueline Govaerts and the girlband Treble. In 2006 the latter were chosen to represent The Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Olaf also wrote a drumming course for the ‘Slagwerkkrant‘, the Drummers’ Magazine in the Netherlands.

In the last few years Olaf has played with Bushira and Waylon. In 2011 he played the drums with the ‘feel good’ musical ‘The Crazy Shopping Tour’ and afterwards with the musicals ‘Zorro’ and ‘Sister Act’. He also had the time in between to stand in with the Theatre Show ‘Jeugdherinneringen’, a show written by Danny de Munk and Henk Poort. In 2013 Olaf played as a substitute drummer with Nielson, famous for ‘ De beste singer-songwriter’of the Netherlands.

But now as of the middle of 2014 he is going to get to it with lots of enthusiasm with Slagerij Van Kampen, the percussion group!