Hiromi & Metropole Orkest

On 12 September 2026 at TivoliVredenburg, pianist and composer Hiromi will come together with the Metropole Orchestra. Hiromi grew up in Hamamatsu and, from her first steps on stage, has blended jazz, classical music and fusion into a rhythmic, driven language. At 17 she attracted attention in Tokyo alongside Chick Corea; she later refined her playing at Berklee, supported by Ahmad Jamal. She expanded her career with trios, then went electric with Hiromi’s Sonicbloom (Time Control, 2007), and regularly returned to the solo format with Place to Be (2009) and Spectrum (2019). Recently she has been exploring orchestral forms with Silver Lining Suite (2021) for piano and string quartet, composing for film (Blue Giant, 2023), and delving into the electric and funk side with Sonicwonderland (2023), where piano and keyboards take center stage.

The Metropole Orchestra, founded in 1945 within the public broadcasting system, operates between big band and symphony orchestra. Under leaders and arrangers such as Rogier van Otterloo, Dick Bakker, Vince Mendoza and Jules Buckley, it developed a wide repertoire: jazz, pop, film music, world music and electronica. The combination of a solid rhythm section and a large string section gives the orchestra the flexibility to shift from compact grooves to orchestral colors. It has collaborated with a diverse range of soloists, including Snarky Puppy on the album Sylva (2015). In Utrecht, Hiromi and the orchestra join forces in a programme in which her pianistic world and compositions meet the sound and precision of a large ensemble, between pulse, melody and improvisation.