My name is Christian Johannes Nijeboer. I was born to a Surinamese mother and a Dutch father in Zaandam, on a summer night in August of 2002. That makes me 19 years of age, and a leo. I received an anthroposophic upbringing, along the teachings of the Austrian philosopher and mystic Rudolf Steiner. I grew up in a quiet town in the polders of the Zaanstreek, just north of Amsterdam, surrounded by fields, farms and water. I consumed a healthy diet of traditional South-American music, American folk and Bach's Passions.

 

At the age of 6, I started taking piano lessons from Mirjam Karres. Since then, the instrument has never left me, notwithstanding my enthusiasm for playing mandolin and percussion. Though I loved the romantic works Mirjam taught me, I often found myself getting distracted by improvisation. This is when I discovered my need for creating my own music. After exploring this through improvisation for a few  years, greatly aided by the passionate music education provided by my high school, I finally decided to take composition lessons from Danai Belosinof at the age of 18.

I went to a Waldorf school for my primary and secondary education. In the Geert Groote College, my high-school, we had an amazing music teacher: David Mulder. He would take the whole class to the Concertgebouw, teach us about Pink Floyd and organise monthly concerts at the school. He inspired me to pursue musicology at the University of Amsterdam, where I am currently in my second year bachelor’s. I am specialising in cultural musicology.