Chiel Meijering - World of Glass

Ce résumé n'est pas disponible. Veuillez cliquer ici pour afficher l'article.

Douwe Eisenga - See!

Biography

Douwe Eisenga

The Dutch composer Douwe Eisenga studied composition with Julius Ament and Wim Diriwachter at the Groningen Conservatory in the Netherlands. He has written pieces for, among others, the Xenakis Ensemble, Super Librum. Python Soxophone Quartet and for pianist’s Gerard Bouwhuis, Jeoren van Veen and Marcel Worms.
In 2001 Marcel Worms recorded Eisenga’s Growing Worm for his CD More new blues for piano. In the same year, Eisenga’s chamber-opera Kabaal (Row) received enthusiastic reviews in the Dutch press. Eisenga continued with Requiem 1953, a large-scale composition for choir and orchestra, performed in 2003 for the commemoration of the flood that struck The Netherlands in 1953. Later on that year, the première of the Piano Concerto took place in Yokohama, Japan, performed by Gerard Bouwhuis and the Xenakis Ensemble. Spring 2004 witnessed the Dutch première of the complete piece at the Centre for New Music in Zeeland (NL).
In 2006 the CD 'Rose Road - City Lines' was released. The CD got very positive reviews in the Dutch press. In 2007 Kabaal was performed about 20 times in a new extended version. In 2008 Eisenga wrote music for Cloud Atlas, a project based on the novel from David Mitchell, performed by members of Nieuw Amsterdam Peil.

The dance-performance Wiek (Rotor) was premiered in 2009, followed by over 30 shows on Dutch festivals as Oerol, Festival over ‘IJ, the Boulevard in Den Bosch and Zeeland Nazomer Festival. Wiek is a location-based production by Boukje Schweigman, for which Eisenga wrote the music. Two more premieres followed 2009 : Delta Dance for the Clazz Ensemble and Kick out the Muse for choir and orchestra.

Like many composers of his generation, the music of Eisenga is rooted in pop music. He does not make any distinction between musical tearjerkers, twelve-tone techniques, baroque music or eastern-orientated cyclical structures. All these elements are used together in compositions that are both accessible and refreshing.

See !

Simon Song 5.5

(by the composer himself)

The composition See! for piano solo is a kind of extension of the little pianopiece Simon Song No.5.

 While I was working on this piece I noticed that some notes of the intro of this piece shared some musical DNA with How Now? from Philip Glass. 

So, in a way the title See! forms a kind of answer to the question in the title from Glass.

Besides that, the note C is really everywhere in the piece I wrote for Nicolas Horvath: See! is a sea of c’s!!!

Jeroen van Veen - Minimal Prelude 26; Hommage to Philip Glass

Biography

Jeroen Van Veen

Dutch pianist and composer, Jeroen van Veen, the leading exponent of minimalism in Holland today, Alan Swanson (Fanfare)

Jeroen Van Veen (1969) started playing the piano at the age of 7. He studied at the Utrecht Conservatory with Alwin Bär and Håkon Austbö. In 1993 he passed the Performing Artists' Exam. Van Veen has played with orchestras conducted by Howard Williams, Peter Eötvös, Neal Stulberg and Robert Craft. He has played recitals in Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Russia & the USA.  

Van Veen attended master classes with Claude Helffer, Hans-Peter & Volker Stenzl and Roberto Szidon. He was invited to several festivals; Reder Piano Festival (1988), Festival der Kunsten in Bad Gleichenberg (1992), Wien Modern (1993), Holland Dance Festival (1998) Lek Art Festival (1996-2007). Van Veen recorded for major Dutch Radio- and Television companies like AVRO, NOS, IKON, NCRV, TROS/Internet, WTBC-TV & Radio (Florida, U.S.A.) and Moscow Television. In 1992, Van Veen recorded his first CD with his brother Maarten as the internationally recognized Piano duo Van Veen. In 1995 Piano duo Van Veen made their debut in the United States. They were prizewinners in the prestigious 4th International Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition in Miami, Florida. After this achievement they toured the United States and Canada many times. The documentary "Two Pianos One Passion" (nominated with an Emmy Award 1996) documents them as a duo.  

Besides performing, Jeroen is co-founder and artistic director of the International Student Piano Competition, which is held in Utrecht every two years. In 1995 Jeroen Van Veen founded the duo Sandra & Jeroen van Veen, a piano duo with Sandra Mol. As such, they mainly perform music for multiple pianos by Erik Satie, Douwe Eisenga and Simeon ten Holt. Furthermore, in 1999 Van Veen initiated a concert series ‘Pianova’ in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Beside his career as a solo pianist Van Veen also participates in the following ensembles: ‘Piano Ensemble’, ‘The International Piano Quartet’, ‘Piano Mania’, ‘DJ Piano’ and ‘Jeroen van Veen & Friends’. 

The various compositions by Van Veen may be described as ‘Minimal Music’ with different faces, Crossovers to Jazz, Blues, Soundscape, Avant-Garde, Techno, Trance and Pop Music. Currently Mr. Van Veen is director of Van Veen Productions, Chairman of the Simeon ten Holt Foundation, Culemborg Cultural Foundation, Pianomania Foundation and artistic director of several music festivals in Culemborg, Utrecht and Veldhoven. He is active in the International Utrecht Student Piano Competition and the Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition. Over the last 15 years Van Veen recorded more than 100 CDs for several labels (Mirasound, Koch, Naxos, Brilliant Classics) and his own label PIANO. 

The recording of Les Noces for Koch and Naxos was stated in the New York Times as " the best recording ever".

Classics Today on Erik Satie pianoworks four hands, 10 artistic quality, 10 sound quality

Minimal Prelude 26; Hommage to Philip Glass

(by the composer himself)

This piece is a hommage to Philip Glass who was a great inspiration for me as a composer. The whole minimal prelude is also part of my NLXL which I completed in the end of  2011. There are basically two different moods, the first one is easy going, in the typical polyrhythm (triplets over duplets) way. The general mood is melodic and looking for harmonic ground. It gradually shifts toward a wilder second episode in which the polyrhythmic figure expands and speeds up. The meter transforms from regular to irregular and major and minor alternate constantly. The piece demands a technically good qualified pianist. The overall feeling is a reflexion of our society; getting faster and more complicated every day. 

Duration is approx. 12 minutes.