Ben Cruiming started music at an early age with the symphonic wind band ‘Kunst aan het Volk’. After several years of euphonium lessons at the music school in Enschede, he was accepted by the Twents Conservatorium to study trombone. His teacher was Gerrit Boomsma,
the former first trombone player of the Overijssels Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 1978 Ben received his teaching diploma with an additional qualification for orchestral playing. Two years later he successfully qualified for euphonium.
Ben has played in numerous orchestras combos and ensembles but initially began in the light music sector: Freddie Golden’s Orchestra, several big bands and laterally mainly in classical music as free-lancer  with Opera Forum, the Overijssels Philharmonic Orchestra and various other Dutch symphony orchestras. In 1984 he became part-time 2nd trombone in the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra in Enschede.

Furthermore, Ben is owner of Stormworks® Europe, a publishing company specializing in sheet music, which he founded in 1998.
Through Ben and Bert Aalders, director of MUI in Arnhem, the Hungarian composer Frigyes Hidas is now a well known name in the western symphonic wind band world.
In 1992, the first contacts were laid by ‘BMC’ with Hidas  for the publication  of his Requiem for 4 soloists, mixed choir and symphonic wind band. This contact led to a long and exclusive collaboration with this famous Hungarian composer. As a result, several new works were composed and it was also  the basis for the present Stormworks® Europe.

Unfortunately the close contact with Frigyes Hidas came to an untimely end with his early death in 2007. A great man, friend and composer, never to be forgotten!

Frigyes Hidas 1928 - 2007