Career
He is an artist/clinician for Michael Rath Trombones. His personal instrument is a Rath R9 with Rotax valves. Born in The Hague, Laanen"s father Theo was also a noted trombonist.
After training in the Royal Conservatory, he worked in the 1960s and early 1970s as a freelance trombonist in Germany and his home country.
In 1980 he played with the Pretoria Symphony Orchestra in Johannesburg, South Africa. In the 1990s he worked as a music copyist for the famous Metropole Orchestra.
He also runs a web site "Trombone Page of the world".
