Jazz guitarist Teis Semey has won second prize and the Press prize at the Leiden Boonekamp Jazz Award 2015. Teis (1993, Denmark) studies in the second year of the bachelor's degree programme. During the final he was accompanied by Liya Grigoryan, piano; Andreas Toftemark, tenor sax; Louis Navarro, bass, and Robin van Rhijn, drums.
The jury - Frans Heemskerk, musical director, pianist, composer and orchestrator; Pieter van Santen, jazz pianist and teacher; Tuffie Vos, presenter of Jazz in the Morning; Floriaan Wempe, tenor saxophonist and winner of the Leiden Jazz Award 2010; and chair Wouter Turkenburg, head of the Royal Conservatoire jazz department - wrote: 'Teis is a soloist who serves the band as a whole. Interesting rhythmical shifts and creative concepts. The complexity fortunately never wins from the playfulness of the band. Good arrangements of the pieces that develop as they go on. The stories that Teis tells on his guitar will only become stronger and stronger in the course of time.'