As a teenager in the early 1960s he loved Renaissance music, Bach, Ravel, and Thelonious Monk; at the age of eighteen he began studying music theory with Jan van Dijk, Hein Kien and Rudolf Koumans and piano with Simon Admiraal at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.
In addition to his fascination with jazz, an important encounter at that time was with the music of Charles Ives, which taught him the value of inclusivity.
It also encouraged his tendency to attempt a synthesis between tonality and atonality, to connect previously disparate systems of musical thought.
His other influences include Stravinsky, a key figure for the composers of the Hague school, but also importantly Monk and John Coltrane.
His works include commissions for the ensembles Orkest de Volharding, Hoketus, Slagwerkgroep den Haag and Icebreaker and for the Concertgebouw Orchestra.