Early years Beets was born in
The Hague on 12 June 1971. His mother is a music teacher and his father a jazz-playing gynaecologist with a love of
Oscar Peterson and
Art Blakey. This musical family, which includes two elder brothers, Marius and Alexander, moved in 1972 to
Groenlo, where Peter received his first piano lessons at the age of six. Marius (1966) and Alexander (1968) become professional musicians (on double bass and tenor sax). After college, Beets studied from 1989 at the
Royal Conservatory of The Hague. He combined his music studies with law school, but he decided to concentrate exclusively on music.
Career From 1985 the brothers performed together as the Beets Brothers. In 1990 The Beets Brothers' first album was released, followed by
School Is Closed Now (1993) and
Brotherwise (1995). In 1996, Beets recorded a trio album called
First Date with
Jeff Hamilton on drums. He became a popular pianist in the Netherlands and accompanied
Deborah Brown, Dee Daniels, and
Rita Reys. In 1998 he graduated from the conservatory and became the pianist of the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw. With trombonist
Curtis Fuller, Beets made a live recording in 1999 and won the Concours de Solistes de Jazz in Monaco. More recordings followed: in 2000
Powerhouse, in 2001
All or Nothing at All. In 2001 Beets recorded the album
New York Trio with
Rodney Whitaker and
Willie Jones III, his first album for
Criss Cross. After the sequel,
New York Trio Page Two, recorded with
Larry Grenadier on bass, he made a third Criss Cross album, this time with
Reginald Veal on bass and drummer
Herlin Riley. In October 2007 the album
New Groove appeared. This time he chose to perform without drums, but with the strength of piano, guitar and bass. The album is recorded in New York featuring
Joe Cohn (guitar) and
Reuben Rogers (bass). A few songs are recorded with a Dutch line up: Martijn van Iterson (guitar) and Ruud Jacobs (bass). In 2010 Beets released two albums.
Blues for the Date is a live recording made with the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw. This album features mainly songs composed by Beets. It won an
Edison Award (the Dutch equivalent of the
Grammy). In Autumn 2010, Criss Cross released the fifth album by Beets:
Chopin Meets the Blues. On this album he uses
Chopin melodies as a basis for jazz improvisation. He recorded this album with
Joe Cohn (guitar),
Reuben Rogers (double bass) and Greg Hutchinson (drums). In February 2013 he recorded again with this rhythm section. This album, called
Portrait of Peterson is an homage to one of his biggest idols,
Oscar Peterson. Beets has had tours with his trio in Germany, Switzerland, Finland and Poland as well as in Japan and the US. He played at the
Birdland Club in New York as a special guest for one week.
Theater programs A duet for two grand pianos with
Chick Corea (with whom he shares a birthday) in the large auditorium of the
Amsterdam Concertgebouw resulted in a performance in trio setting there on 16 April 2005. The success of the trio's first Dutch theatre tour From Bach to Blues (2003) led to a return in the theaters in 2005 with the program Chopin Meets the Blues, followed by Porgy and Bess (2006), presenting his arrangements of the
Gershwin opera. In Autumn 2007 he returned with the program The Blues Goes Latin, highlighting Latin American rhythms. After touring extensively abroad throughout 2008 Beets' trio returned to the Dutch stage in 2009 with a tribute to Oscar Peterson. In 2010 Dutch pianist
Louis van Dijk invited Beets to join him on an extended tour called the Piano Kings and in the following season Beets worked with the
Rosenberg Trio. ==Awards and honors==