Jelle Roozenburg's Bonsai Orchestra

About

Guitarist Jelle Roozenburg built his musical foundation at Codarts in Rotterdam, where he completed both a bachelor's in jazz guitar and a master's in classical and electronic music. He works as a composer and arranger, including for Bonsai Panda and the New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra. His Bonsai Orchestra is a 13 piece ensemble assembled around a central idea: a musical and theatrical response to disconnection in a technology saturated, individualistic world. The composition at the heart of this project, called Dis//connect, threads absurdism through a collage of punk, ambient, noise, contemporary classical and electronic music, all anchored in jazz, with improvisation and individual voice kept front and centre. The Bonsai Orchestra grows out of Bonsai Panda, the quintet Roozenburg co founded with trombonist Louk Boudesteijn, which has released six albums mixing jazz, rock, modern classical and improvisation. The larger ensemble expands that adventurous spirit into something more theatrical, celebrating human connection through deliberate musical contradiction.