Ludo van der Winkel

Ludo van der Winkel was born in 1983, in Eindhoven. When he was only 9 years old he started to play the double bass after he found out the violin was, as an instrument, to small for him. He was raised classically by his family but soon discovered the freedom and possibilities that jazz and blues could provide him. In the meanwhile he started acting at school and played his first small role in a regional production of Oliver Twist. In the years that would follow Ludo developed himself as an all round double bass player, both classical and jazz, resulting in a bachelor and masters degree at the Fontys Conservatorium in Tilburg. In despite of his attempt to get through the auditions for the Theatre school, his focus has been on music and so the love for acting disappeared to the background. After his graduation Ludo soon found a new way of making music real and combined it with a long lost love, acting, in several Dutch theatrical and musical plays where, besides playing the bass, he also started singing and acting. His childhood love for acting and performing soon won terrain and in 2012, four years after his Master graduation Ludo decided to put the bass in the corner for a while and started an education to be an actor. Before he was able to finish the acting school he was asked to play a part in the Dutch succesmusical "Soldier of Orange" where, after one year in the ensemble, he became the understudy for one of the main characters. In the following years Ludo developed himself as an actor in stageplay, film, commercial, television, musical and music-theatre. 

Ludo started his professional career as a bass player in 2002 at the Fontys Conservatorium in Tilburg. During his collegetime he took lessons from Hein van de Geyn and Stefan Lievestro and composition by Maino Remmers and Henk Meutgeert. After he finished his masters degree in 2008 he played with some of the best musicians in Holland, like Benjamin Herman, Hans van Oosterhout, Peter Beets, Eric Vloeimans, Ruben Hein, Wouter Hamel, Denise Jannah, Margriet Sjoerdsma, the Young Sinatras amongst many others. But being on the road all the time, hopping from gig to gig, not really getting into the music and with no permanent position in a group, Ludo longed for some more happiness in his career and decided only to take on work that he really and fully enjoyed, work that would give him more satisfaction and output. That meant less jazz and more theatre. With his bass Ludo took on more jobs as a theatre musician, especially the jobs where he is on stage, playing an active part. Between 2009 and 2014 Ludo played in over 7 music theatre-shows, some of them co-created by him. During this period he rediscovered his long lost love, acting, and started an education to be an actor. After he played a role in the musical "Soldier of Orange" for two years, he picked up the bass again in 2016 and started writing a new theatre-show with Mattijs Verhallen and Bas Maree with poems from the Dutch writer Jean Pierre Rawie. In the fall of 2017, Ludo will play with the Dutch comedian and singer Mylou Frencken.

Ludo started his acting career in 2012. He audited for the acting school in Amsterdam, took lessons from Machteld Hauer, Maarten Wansink, Olaf Pieters and later courses by Stefan de Walle and Koen Wouterse. After one year he played his first role in "Wij zijn God", a play written by Helmert Woudenberg and directed by Olaf Pieters. Before he could finish his second and last year at school, he was asked to play in the ensemble of the Dutch musical "Soldier of Orange", where, after one year, he became the understudy of one of the main characters. In practice, these two years where a kind of an education to him as well. He kept developing himself, he watched and learned from his colleagues and invested in his career as an actor. From 2015 on Ludo started playing some small roles in Dutch television-series and movies, commercials and took up work as a voice actor. In 2017 Ludo played in a play, written and directed by the Dutch director Gerardjan Rijnders. In the summer of 2018 he made his comeback in "Soldier of Orange" playing first cast main character "Chris de Vries".