Shermaine Velasco and Florence van der Does have formed a piano duo since the beginning of 2018. They are affiliated with the Pianoduo Festival Academy of the Scholtes & Janssens duo. They also attended masterclasses with Paul Komen, Nata Tsvereli, Igor Roma and Ilona Timchenko, among others. The duo gave concerts on stages such as the Vondelpark Open Air Theater, the Deventer Theater and in the Duif during the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam. The duo could also be heard in Opium on Radio 4. In the summer of 2018 they took part in the Peter the Great Festival in Groningen, where they received the "Honorary Award for outstanding Musicianship".
Shermaine Velasco (1994) started piano lessons with Maaike Eijkman at the Muziekschool de Kunstlinie in Almere at the age of six. At the age of nine she was hired in the young talent class. She continued her studies with Frank Peters at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, where she obtained her bachelor's degree in June 2017. Nowadays she studies with Klára Würtz in the master's at the Conservatory of Utrecht. Shermaine gives concerts on a regular basis and has played in the Doelen in Rotterdam, the Schouwburg in Almere, Tivoli Vredenburg in Utrecht and during the Wonderfeel festival. She received masterclasses from Eliane Rodriguez, Rian de Waal, Paolo Giocometti, Nino Gvetadze, David Kuyken, Mila Baslawskaja and Brenno Ambrosini, among others. Shermaine is very active in making chamber music. In addition to the piano duo, she forms a duo with violinist Daniel Lee.
Florence van der Does (08-09-1994) started taking piano lessons at the age of 13 with piano lessons. She attended the preparatory course at the Amsterdam Conservatory. In 2018 she obtained her bachelor's degree at the ArtEZ Conservatory in Zwolle where she was taught by Frank Peters. From September she continues her studies at ArtEZ in the master with Frank van de Laar. Florence regularly gives concerts and has played in the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, Musis Sacrum in Arnhem, Theater Orpheus in Apeldoorn and Schouwburg Odeon in Zwolle. She attended master classes with, among others, Brenno Ambrosini, Marietta Petkova, Fernando Rossano, Rikako Murata, David Kuyken and Bart van Oort. Florence is an active chamber musician. In addition to the duo with Shermaine, she forms a trio with Jara van Dam (clarinet) and Cormac Ó Briain (cello).