The man behind BrassLink. Steef Klepke Jr was born in Vlaardingen, the most famous town in Holland, near Rotterdam, on the 7th of March 1968. As his parents were salvationists his first visit to the Salvation Army hall was in a pram. Nowadays it’s hardly to believe that he was a very shy 8 year old, when he got his first musical lessons and started to play with the Corps Y.P. Band.

This was the start of a journey of discovering Salvation Army music, a journey which is still going on. At fifteen year of age he started playing with the Vlaardingen Band, which is one of the best Salvation Army bands in the Netherlands. He joined the cornet section, played soprano cornet for a while, and later on became their principal cornet-player, a position he held for many years.

During the following years he also played with the Southern Netherlands Divisional Youth Band where he also held the principals chair for several years. In the end of the 1990’s he served as bandmaster for this band for a couple of years.

Participation in the Territorial Music Camps of Sweden (Dragudden) and the United Kingdom (Cobham Hall) took place in 1986 and 1989 and from 1976 until 1998 he was at the National School of Music in the Netherlands, first as student, later as staff.

In 1987 Steef joined the Amsterdam Staff Band and went to the Divisional & Territorial Music Camps in Canada, where he got lessons from Deryck Diffey, who was the cornet soloist for the Canadian Staff Band for more than 25 years. Deryck always has been and still is Steef's biggest example in cornet playing. With the Amsterdam Staff Band he visited England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Canada, Belgium, Czechoslovakia and the  United States of America

In 1994 Steef was appointed principal cornet player for the Amsterdam Staff Band. During this time he played with many well known musicians, but the highlight was to play alongside international trumpeter Philip Smith in the cornet duet Quicksilver. He left the Amsterdam Staff Band in 2000 but was asked to rejoin a year later already when there was a vacancy on principal cornet. Half a year later he was able to full fill an old dream, playing soprano cornet with the Amsterdam Staff Band. After the tour to the western part of the United States of America at the beginning of 2003 Steef left the band to concentrate on playing with his corps band and spending more time with his family. 

However, as he still is very interested in the Amsterdam Staff Band as such, he is often called to fill in when a member is ill, this included parts as soprano cornet, all Bb cornet parts, en even on Tenor Horn!

In 2005 Steef was called to join the the Canadian Staff Band, his worlds most favorite band, for a tour through the Western part of Canada on solo cornet which was a dream came through, and a year later, 2006 he travelled to Argentina, South America, to lead a Divisional Music School in Buenos Aires. In 2009 he was once again asked for help when the Amsterdam Staff Band went on tour to Finland, needless to say he didn't need much time to think this over!

The past years saw him play with the Amsterdam Staff Band, Canadian Staff Band, German Staff Band, International Staff Band, Ottawa Citadel Band, Buenos Aires Central Corps Band, Amsterdam West Band, Schiedam Corps Band, Rotterdam Oost Band, Zuid Nederland Divisie Band, Brass Band Thalita, Dynamic Versatile Brass, Utrecht Founders Corps Band, Zeist Citadel Band, Eindhoven Corps Band, Vlissingen Corps Band, Goes Corps Band, The Hague Congress Hall Band, Dordrecht Corps Band, Gorichem Corps Band, Apeldoorn Corps Band, Upper Norwood Band, Zwolle Corps Band, Scarborough Citadel Band and many others.

Brass composers he met or played with included Eric Ball, William Gordon, Ty Watson, Kenneth Smith, Leonard Ballantine, Ray Steadman-Allen, Norman Bearcroft, Noel Jones, Howard Evans, Richard Squibb, Richard Phillips, Peter Ayling, Dick Krommenhoek, Dirk Krommenhoek, David Mills, Olaf Ritman, Kevin Norbury, Steven Bulla, Eiliv Herikstadt, Terry Camsey, Peter van der Horden, Torgny Hanson, Peter Graham, John Gibson, Andrew Blyth and others.

For over 10 years Steef is associated with Salvation Army radio broadcastings in both The Netherlands as well as Canada, and always looking for new recordings for use on the radio. Since December 2007 he is fully responsible for the brass part of Radio Salvation, located in Rotterdam, Holland. (see www.radiosalvation.nl).

Steef also has written numerous articles about brass bands, composers and related subjects in the Brass Info Magazine (The Netherlands), British Bandsman (UK), The Salvationist (Australia), BandNews (The Netherlands) and the THEME (Canada).

Married to Paola, a former Amsterdam Staff Songster, they have two beautiful daugthers called Melody Dawn (1996) and Brittany May (1999). He works for Unilever Research & Development as a technologist in the field of nutrition. 

Steef is an avid Salvation Army and brass recordings collector and finds that old LP’s and cassette tapes are still worth listening too. This resulted in a long hard everlasting search over the world to find special vinyl (LP/EP) and cassette recordings which still goes on.  

His most favorite Salvation Army composers include: Eric Ball, Erik Leidzen, George Marshall, Arthur Gullidge, Dorothy Gates, Wilfred Heaton, Norman Bearcroft, Olaf Ritman, Bramwell Coles, Dean Goffin, Thomas Rive, Brenton Broadstock, Brian Bowen, Terry Camsey, Percy Merritt and Emil Soderstrom. Outside the Salvation Army he enjoys music by the pen of Paul Lovatt-Cooper, Philip Wilby and Philip Sparke.