Rob Balfoort was born on May 16 1961 in Voorschoten (The Netherlands) and starts piano lessons at age six. Three years later he starts taking trumpet lessons at Henk Bosveld (former trumpet player of the Royal Marine Band) and joins wind band Laurentius in Voorschoten. At age 21 he conducts this same orchestra – something he will do for the next 18 years. In the meanwhile he graduates from the Brabant Conservatory in Tilburg as "Performing Musician" and he is awarded the Wind Band Conducting-diploma, having studied with the famous Jaap Knoops. Rob's activities keep on concentrating on music: we works as a brass instruments teacher and founds his company Eagle Music together with his wife in 1985. He specialises in writing compositions, arrangements and accompaniments on demand for all different kinds of orchestras and events. The theatre show of the internationally acclaimed duo Mini & Maxi, the Royal Ballet of the Flanders (Belgium), the World Music Contest in Kerkrade (Netherlands) are only a few examples. Also he writes accompaniments for soloists who play at the Douane Harmonie of The Netherlands, The Johan Willem Friso Band and the Royal Marine Band from The Netherlands. His multi-talented skills are also expressed in writing music for various theme parks, World Horse Games and some famous tattoos. In 1987 Rob becomes conductor of the high-ranking band DVS Katwijk and the year after also of Adest Musica in Sassenheim. In addition, he conducts several other bands. In the meanwhile he has his compositions for drum and show corps published at a Dutch percussion publisher after which he starts corporating with Tierolff Muziekcentrale in 1999 for the publication of his wind band pieces. Also, he's an indemand jury member for various contests and has been member of the board of the Band Conductors of the Netherlands Association. Also he is an advisor of the national band institute (Unisono). Balfoort also works as a sound director for CD recordings, amongst others there are some productions of Tierolff Muziekcentrale.
