Born Dennis van de Vaart in Wedlock...no, that's not right.

In the nineties, Fred studied 'Jazz and Popular Music' at the Conservatory of Tilburg, and in the noughties became a full-time piano teacher. In 2015, he opened his Yellow Hippo Studios where he continues to welcome students from all walks of life.

His career as a performer began in 2014 when he was invited to join ZAPPATiKA. This led to him playing Festival Moo-Ah! and Zappanale, and sharing the stage with Zappa alumni Ike Willis, Jeff Hollie, Craig 'Twister' Steward, Ed Mann and Denny Walley.

After leaving ZAPPATiKA, he began performing as a solo artist and also joined the Zappa Early Renaissance Orchestra (ZERO) for several performances across the US and Europe, playing with Prairie Prince as well as Ike and Jeff, and with Denny and Twister at Moo-ah in 2017.

During the COVID pandemic, he recorded ZAPPA, an album of solo piano renditions of Frank's tunes. He has released several other albums and singles of both original material and Zappa covers. All of these can be found on his Bandcamp page at fredhandl.bandcamp.com. He has also contributed tracks to six Idiot-compiled albums for Cordelia Records (see Spotify playlist below) and can be heard on the soundtrack of Alex Winter's 2020 Zappa movie playing a solo piano rendition of Oh No! (when Ruth Underwood talks about hearing said song at the Garrick).

In 2023, Fred played Zappanale as part of the All New Frankly Don’t-Wop Duo and also as a solo artist. That same year, he performed at Mosae Zappa with the newly formed trio called HBH (Hollie, Beck, Händl). HBH morphed into The Jeff Hollie Quartet and made two further appearances at Zappanale in 2024.

As well as playing Moo-ah with ZAPPATiKA in 2015 and ZERO in 2017, he also played as a solo act in 2019. In the past few years, Fred has continued to fly solo across Europe and we are honoured that he is returning to Corby to entertain us once again in 2026. We also look forward to seeing him back at Zappanale in July - this time as part of the Filthy Brillos and Yo Cats, but not as lead alphornist with The Dingleberries, who will be performing the whole of Sheena Easton's 1984 album Todo Me Recuerda A Ti in an unmarked DIXI behind the showers. Schtum.

Website: www.fredhandl.com