Robin Verheyen
first started lessons on the saxophone at the age of 12. He won the prestigious Django d’Or prize at the age of 25. He has called a variety of cities his home (Turnhout, Amsterdam, Paris, New York). One can definitely say that Robin Verheyen has a focused approach to his career.

Born in Turnhout in 1983, Robin Verheyen first studied for three years in Belgium, then two years in the Netherlands, and one year as an honour student (“dean’s list”) at the Manhattan School of Music with Dave Liebman, Steve Slagle, Frank Vaganée, Jasper Blom, Ferdinand Povel, Dick Oatts, and John Ruocco. He ended his musical study with honours in Amsterdam.

At 40, Robin Verheyen is considered one of the top European saxophone players and composers having made NYC and the US musician’s community his home. Established here since 2007, he quickly built a reputation as a player and composer. He has worked with jazz greats such as Gary Peacock, Ralph Alessi, Joey Baron and many others.

In 2014 he traveled to Senegal to immerse himself in the local music scene, using the experience towards a long-term process of bringing together West African rhythms with the modernistic harmonies of French composer Olivier Messiaen. This is representative of Verheyen’s cross-genre approach to music, something that has become a mainstay in his oeuvre. In January 2018 Verheyen released When the Birds Leave on Universal Music, with his quartet featuring Marc Copland, Drew Gress and Billy Hart.

More recently Verheyen completed two new commissioned works, one for string quintet and saxophone (partly inspired by a residency at the cultural center Thread in Senegal); and a composition for string trio, piano and saxophone (featuring pianist Marc Copland and the Goeyvaerts String trio) that premièred at the Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp where Verheyen has been visiting Artist in Residence since 2017.

In 2019 Verheyen released the album MiXMONK on his Universal contract with the co-op trio with Joey Baron and Bram De Looze which was followed by their second album On The Loose (Curatores/L’autre Distribution) in 2022.

In 2021 he released The Bach Riddles, a quartet reworking of Bach’s Musical Offering (WERF Records). In 2023 his solo soprano saxophone album Playing the Room was released and later this year a recording of the commissioned work for the KMSKA will also be published.