Ben van den Berg

Ben van den Berg
Following the family tradition, Ben took up the accordion at the age of seven. His father taught him the basics of the squeeze box, but within a year he outgrew this stage and started to attend the music school in Geleen. Around the same time he also began to compose. Many short pieces for combinations of instruments played by members of the family - flute, violin, guitar and accordion - were constantly heard in his parental home.
At the age of seventeen he became the conductor of a choir and started to compose for vocal groups in addition to his parlour music. In 1985 he went to the Maastricht Conservatory, where he studied classical accordion with Naud Reynders. At the same time he developed an interest for the piano. In 1986 he decided to combine his studies at the conservatory with a study Dutch Law and in 1990 he became both a certificated accordionist and a Master of Laws. He then went to Australia for a year, where he made the musician in him cover for his expenses. Apart from this he spent time in Athens, Bucharest and Istanbul, together with his flute-playing sister. Before joining Flairck in 1993 he worked as an accordionist with the Geleen Accordion Orchestra, as a conductor and singer with various gospel bands and choirs and as a pianist with a number of soloists. Recently he has been working with Erik Visser on compositions for Flairck and other projects.