Biography
Sebastiaan (Bas) Ammerlaan begged his parents for violin lessons when he was four. Ever since, music took a strong hold of him. He started singing when he joined the University College Roosevelt university choir as part of his minor in viola playing. He also studied musicology there. From 2013 on he studied classical singing at the HKU Utrecht Conservatory, first with Jón Þorsteinsson and from 2016–2020 with Selma Harkink.
In 2023, he graduated from the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague with lessons from Gerda van Zelm and Harry van Berne. He also received lessons from David Wilson-Johnson, Jasper Schweppe, Irene Verburg, Kaspar Kröner, Marjan Kuiper and Elisabeth Blom.
He is a strong proponent of performing newly written music. He has been fortunate enough to be able to give (solo) premières of music by several big composers, like David Lang, Daan Manneke, Joey Roukens and Mathilde Wantenaar.
Sebastiaan has performed with the Huelgas Ensemble, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the choir of the Dutch National Opera, Consensus Vocalis and the Bach Choir of the Netherlands. He played in the Dutch National Youth Orchestra and sang in the Dutch National Youth Choir
He forms a duo with pianist Geert Omta. They organise their own concerts and provide musical embellishment to events like weddings and funerals.
