New lyrical music in an old Amsterdam synagogue

j anuary 2010 – In the FD-Magazine of January Jurjen Vis wrote about the Uilenburger Concerts interviewed Vanessa Lann, Joost Kleppe me…

Jurjen Vis wrote for the magazine of the Financieele Dagblad (a Dutch miniature Financial Times) a beautiful article on the backgrounds of the concert series organized by the Leo Smit Foundation in the Uilenburger Synagogue in Amsterdam. As a true ‘Amsterdammer’ (excuse the accent, Dutch people) I am proud to be performed in such a typically Amsterdammish location: – the Utrecht String Quartet will perform there on March 15 my Over het Water. The article has three interviews, with Vanessa Lann, Joost Kleppe and me. Jurjen Vis’full text is available (in Dutch only) [here.

About me

Musical beauty and simplicity are my aim. My guiding principle is the classical European tradition. Folk music, church music and Early Music are the sources to which I return to seek new melodic beauty. I value musical craftsmanship and intuition highly. Musicians are my first audience. It is their virtuosic interplay, comic or dramatic, but always emotionally charged, that is the musical theater my music presents to the listener. The sounds I cherish most are those that through the musician’s hearts, breath and hands bear the mark of their personal interpretation.
Chamber music is, therefore, central to me – I have written for the Bennewitz Quartet and Harry-Imre Dijkstra, the Skampa Quartet, Rosanne Philippens, the Bartók Trio, the Utrecht String Quartet and many others.
My chamber music for recorders has a special place in my work and is played in large numbers by amateurs. The CD Kadanza is a fruit of decades of collaboration with the best professionals who were often also the best teachers.
For me, choral music is also a species of chamber music. It should challenge and offer musical satisfaction to those many amateur singers – that I am one of.

My music features individual performers – to convey a thought, an emotion, and a story to the audience in a virtuoso and intense fashion.

In rehearsal and performance, the performers and I learn a lot from each other. Sometimes their improvisations are included in the musical story. Scores will always be adapted to their needs.

The interplay between performer and composer is absolutely essential in newly written music. As is the interplay between sponsor and composer.

Would you like me to rehearse with you or do you want to know more about a piece?

Do you want me to write a piece for a particular line-up or event?

Please let me know and I will contact you.

Besides composing, I lecture in New Music at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, with a focus on chamber music and music aesthetics. Some of the writing and thinking that I do there can be found in the ‘text’ section.