Born in 1958, Joop Celis received his first piano lessons from his father at the age of nine. Later he studied with Professor Jo Dusseldorp at the Conservatory of Maastricht in The Netherlands, from which he graduated with distinction in 1979. At the age of fifteen he won a Dutch competition for young pianists, and only four years later the third prize at the well-known Busoni Competition in Bolzano, Italy. He continued his studies for two years with Professor Paul Badura-Skoda at the Hochschule für Musik in Essen, Germany. He was one of the laureates of the Tromp Competition in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in 1980 and of the International Piano Competition at Épinal, France, a year later. As well as giving solo recitals and concerts of chamber music, he has made a number of recordings, both for release on CD and for broadcast on Dutch, Belgian, German and Italian radio stations.