Oscar Jan Hoogland Receives the 2026 Willem Breuker Prijs at the Bimhuis

Amsterdam pianist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser Oscar Jan Hoogland is receiving the 2026 Willem Breuker Prijs on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at the Bimhuis. The biennial award carries 15,000 euros and a sculpture designed by Wim T. Schippers. Hoogland, who teaches ensembles in the jazz department at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, curated the prize-night program himself.

JazzNu announced the winner on Sept. 14; the Conservatorium van Amsterdam congratulated him in an Oct. 14 notice, and jazz.nl summarized the prize and the Bimhuis evening. The award goes to musicians in the Netherlands whose work follows the inventive, boundary-pushing spirit of Willem Breuker, the saxophonist, composer and bandleader who founded the Willem Breuker Kollektief and the BV Haast label. The previous recipient, in 2024, was saxophonist Kika Sprangers.

From the jury report, quoted by the Conservatorium: "For Oscar Jan Hoogland the world is his playing field. He is a pianist, but also a multi-instrumentalist. Instruments that do not yet exist, he builds himself." The Bimhuis program notes that Hoogland has appeared there with Minute Made Music, The Ambush Party and the EHBO 4tet with Ernst Glerum, Han Bennink and Benjamin Herman.

Tonight's bill, according to the Bimhuis listing, includes Piano Pendulum, a performance with Tim van Dongen; a Willem Breuker film; a duo with Han Bennink; a piece realized by mime students from Amsterdam's Academy of Theatre and Dance; and a large ensemble with Hoogland on piano and electric clavichord alongside Ab Baars, Marcus Warnheim, Ada Rave, Mola Sylla, Semere Welday, Mary Oliver, Harald Austbø, Björk Semey and Jannes Deurvorst. Doors for the café open at 18:30, with the concert at 20:30.

jazz.nl also published an interview with Hoogland about what he feels the Amsterdam improvised-music scene is missing, timed around the prize. The Bimhuis evening is the formal presentation of the 2026 award.