Copied from Het Consort and Stringendo (see external links below):

Ferdinand Binnendijk (1991) began to play the mandolin at the music school in his home town Zwolle at the age of 4. In 2003 and 2006 he won the young talent competition organized by the Orchestra of the East Netherlands, where he appeared as a soloist playing John Craton’s first Mandolin Concerto. In 2009 he won the competition of the Dutch Mandolin Association and was invited to tour with the Dutch National Youth Orchestra. With this orchestra he played Mahler´s 7th Symphony in concert halls in The Netherlands and Belgium. At the national finals of the Princess Christina Concourse in 2011 he won 1st prize. Later that year, he won also the 1st prize in the Calace Concorso, an international concourse for mandolinists. Also in 2011, Ferdinand performed as a soloist with the Dutch Chamber Orchestra and the Dutch Symphony Orchestra.

By invitation of the Dutch Embassy in Athens he toured Greece together with pianist Valentina Toth and saxophonist Dineke Nauta, two other winners of the Princess Christina Concourse in November 2011. In April and May 2012 Ferdinand toured USA and Canada together with PCC winners Laurens de Man (piano) and Annemiek de Bruin (clarinet). Since 2012 Ferdinand is a member of the Asteria Ensemble, with which he was invited to give concerts at the IV Festival Leo Brouwer in Cuba and the Dutch Embassy in Havana. The ensemble consists of Ferdinand, Saskia Spinder (guitar) and Sytse Buwalda (countertenor).

Ferdinand is currently a student with professor Alex Timmerman at the ArtEZ Conservatory in Zwolle and is also a member of the mandolin orchestra ‘The Consort’.

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