Tristan Schmidt started playing the piano at the age of 6 in Arnhem with Dianne Bolte. At the age of 14 he switched to Joop van Zon, where he took classical piano lessons in Oosterbeek. After an interest in various musical styles, including jazz, Tristan started taking improvisation lessons at the age of 17 with jazz pianist Bert van den Brink in Ophemert, after which he was admitted to the Amsterdam Conservatory at the age of 19. Here he studied with pianists Rob van Bavel, Karel Boehlee and Hans Vroomans until his master exam in June 2021.

Schmidt is an upcoming talent on piano in jazz. With his classical piano background, a wide range of sounds, various techniques, his emotional excesses and mastery of multiple genres, he knows how to surprise the listener every time. His performances in the Netherlands and abroad are of a high level, full of virtuosity, pure improvisation, energy and emotion.

Tristan's distaste for talent shows, and other competitions in the music world, combined with his autonomous nature, has meant that he has been living in the background, without prizes, big names and successes. This while his drive and study hours did not deteriorate. The emotionally fragile side of his strong personality comes through sharply in his playing. His boundless love for music, combined with his strict discipline and hyperfocus, has led to his playing at a fully-fledged adult level, appreciated by both professional players and jazz music fans. His musical highlights include performances in the Bimhuis Amsterdam, the small hall of the Concertgebouw, and the B-flat jazz club in Berlin.

There is no doubt about his enormous talent for piano, in combination with his creativity and musicality. Tristan Schmidt is an autodidact and a born soloist. Playing in a trio setting with bass and drums is Tristan's absolute preference. His playing is out of the ordinary, and works well together with a wide repertoire of classics and jazz standards, in which he presents his own vision and sound in an eccentric way. The continuous urge for expression, his hypersensitive reaction time, the search for lines in the millisecond, and the creation of emotional highlights in his playing, make him a complete, gifted and unique musician, a great addition and an emerging concept in the Amsterdam jazz scene.