"Hamburg’s music is a combination of intense lyricism, exuberant dance and instrumental finesse. His is a many-facetted oeuvre that charms, surprises, moves one..." Drs. Leo Samama Visser-Neerlandia Music Prize Jury Report Jeff Hamburg, born in 1956 in Philadelphia, is a successful composer based in the Netherlands since 1978. His compositions range from chamber music, vocal, and orchestral to opera and music theater. Performances of his music in recent years include premieres in the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam to BBC recordings to commissions for Australian Orchestras.
He studied acoustics and composition at the University of Illinois (BM), continuing his studies at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague (the Netherlands) with Louis Andriessen. In 1986, he received the Conservatory Prize for his composition studies. He also completed a degree in music education with the French Horn as his major at the Royal Conservatory. He continued his education at the Conservatory of Utrecht following conducting classes with David Porcelijn from 1987 to 1990. Many CDs of his music are available, including both orchestral works as well as chamber music. Hamburg was awarded the prestigious Visser-Neerlandia Music Prize 2002 for the quality of his oeuvre.
In the beginning of 2008 he was elected chaiman of the board of Geneco, the Dutch composer's union and served until 2015.
Hamburg lives in Amsterdam. He plays for the oldest chess club in the Netherlands, VAS.
Guus Janssen is a Dutch composer and pianist whose work brings different musical worlds together: that of classical music with jazz, of composition with improvisation. He doesn’t blend them into a synthesis, but places them alongside each other in montages. In his composed pieces, there are passages where the musicians must improvise, and the improvisations in his jazz pieces are always structured. His improvisations are often rooted in visual impressions. Janssen composes instrumental and vocal music for a variety of ensemble types – it might be a duet for piano and hi-hat, or a piece for Siberian overtone singers. Open-mindedness is one of his main characteristics, and it keeps him from producing routine music and bowing to tradition. Janssen’s music is capricious, unsettling and restless – both his compositions and improvisations. In the string quartet 'Streepjes' [Little Stripes], for instance, he consciously avoids traditional vibrato-playing: the musicians play only flageolet tones, and then suddenly break into exaggerated vibrato passages. Janssen has a particular liking for (intentional) blunders, glitches, the breaking from an initial pattern. The result is music that continually keeps itself in perspective and never gets bogged down in ponderousness. His style has been described as sober, matter-of-fact, clear, even 'typically Dutch'. Janssen himself says that he wants “to write music that is unbiased and open-minded toward all the ‘musics’ around us”. As a composer, he usually works closely with the performers to bridge as far as possible the gap between composition and performance. As a pianist, he frequently appears in large and small venues, from jazz cafes to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
Guus Janssen is born in Heiloo on May 13. He studies the piano with Jaap Spaanderman and composition with Ton de Leeuw at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam.
After completing his studies, Janssen writes the complex piano piece 'Brake', which has clear echoes of the avant-gardists Iannis Xenakis and Brian Ferneyhough. Its complexity does not come from a compositional plan, but largely from improvisation. His 'Muziek' for winds is performed by the Asko Ensemble, in which he plays the piano.
Janssen performs as an improvising pianist and harpsichordist, either alone or with the Guus Janssen Trio and Guus Janssen Septet. He also plays with others, for example with Paul Termos, Maarten Altena and Theo Loevendie. His playing often shows the influence of Thelonious Monk and Lennie Tristano, whose records he knows from his parents’ collection.
Maarten Altena Paul Termos Theo Loevendie
At the Warschauer Herbst music festival, Guus Janssen performs his piano concerto 'Dans van de Malic Matrijzen' (1978) and at the Donaueschinger Musiktage, the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra and trombone soloist Vinko Globokar, conducted by Ernest Bour, premier his new composition 'Toonen'.
Janssen writes 'Streepjes', his second string quartet. He performs as a soloist in the Masters of the Clavier series at the Holland Festival. Guus Janssen receives the Boy Edgar Prize for his achievements in jazz and improvised music. The jury report praises him as a distinct innovator “because he finds a way in his music to forge two related but up to now entirely separate streams into a totally new whole” – by which is meant contemporary classical music and jazz.
Janssen performs as a soloist at the North Sea Jazz Festival, and he doesn’t go unnoticed between such giants as Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie. According to one critic, he crafts “masterpieces from the most insignificant little themes”.
Guus Janssen receives the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize for 'Temet' (1983) for flute, violin, cello and harp.
Janssen performs with John Zorn in the BIMHuis in Amsterdam. There they play old bop pieces by Misha Mengelberg during the October Meeting. The following year, they do the same in Italy. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra commissions a piece from him, and he writes Keer [Turn] (1988). It opens with the strings, which in modern music 'so often have nothing to do'. “You get the idea that the violinists have landed in a windmill that just keeps turning and turning. (...) That string violence has to be turned aside, and that’s why the brass breaks through with the basic chord.”
Guus performs with his brother, the drummer Wim Janssen, at the Knitting Factory in New York. For a Gidon Kremer concert in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, he composes 'Klotz' (1994), for violin, hi-hat solo and ensemble, on a commission from Kremer. The premiere of his opera 'Noach', on a libretto by Friso Haverkamp, is performed during the Holland Festival. The production is directed by Pierre Audi and the scenery is made by Karel Appel.
On a commission from the Donaueschinger Musiktage, he writes 'Verstelwerk' [Mending]. The essence of this piece, according to Janssen, lies in “how it handles tonality, how it’s put together topsy-turvy. There’s plenty of swing in it, but in an odd, stumbling way [...] it sounds like Bernstein gone mad. 'Verstelwerk' is one of my favourite pieces, and the conductor had a ball with it.”
The opera 'Noach' is again performed by de Nederlandse Opera. A year later comes the premiere of his opera 'Hier°' which he worked on from 1999 to 2000. The libretto is by Friso Haverkamp, the direction by Pierre Audi.
Janssen has a special connection with several composers from the Baroque and Classical eras (among whom, Joseph Haydn, C.Ph.E. Bach and Domenico Scarlatti). At times he uses a work of theirs as the starting point of an improvisation, and sometimes he finds with them an idea for a new composition. For the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, he arranges six sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti. He scores three of the sonatas for winds, three others he arranges so they “end wrong”.
This season Janssen is the composer-in-residence of the Brabant Orchestra. He writes 'Belvédère', for two cellos and orchestra, for Larissa Groeneveld and Ernst Reijseger with the Brabant Orchestra. 'Verstelwerk' (1996) is performed at Carnegie Hall in New York by the Riverside Orchestra.
Ernst Reijseger Het Brabants Orkest Larissa Groeneveld
'Pinocchio in Love' is the new opera on a libretto by Friso Haverkamp, written for the summer tour of the Ricciotti Ensemble. In the autumn, the ensemble goes to Sicily.
On May 10, Guus Janssen performs the premiere of his piano concerto 'Vrije Tijd' [Free Time] with the Asko|Schönberg in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
Guus Janssen is awarded the prestigious Johan Wagenaar Prize for his entire oeuvre. From the jury report: “Composer Guus Janssen is ‘Holland at its best’. His complete works are authentic, clearly his own and can't be compared to anything else. His work has such a unique signature that all his pieces, no matter from what period, are always easily recognised as 'typically Janssen'. The jury sees him as one of the most creative and free-thinking composers of this time.”
Willem Jeths' compositions present a highly individual reaction to music tradition. Jeths has composed chamber and orchestral music (including solo concertos), songs and an opera, initially in an atonal idiom, but later flirting with traditional tonality. He draws on the past and attempts to enrich it through experimentation: “It is precisely by taking tradition as a starting point that it becomes possible to explore new paths.” Of the musical parameters, he devotes the greatest attention to tone colour – “Colour is the theme of all my works.” He meticulously works out timbral effects, often calling for playing techniques unused in the West – or even elsewhere – and creatively incorporating uncommon sound sources: toy instruments, breaking glass, dripping water. That seems more subtle than it sometimes sounds, for subtlety and beauty are not always his goal – showing the extremes is more important. “My music is about extremes: strict purity versus distortion, loud against soft.” For example, he lets a beautiful violin tone fade into scratching, and in his Bandoneon Concerto, the solo instrument instead of being tango-like, sounds at times like “a worn-out dog”. While his music is rich in tone colour, Jeths is frugal with his musical material. He limits himself to a few motifs and presents them from varying perspectives until they are (as his composition teacher Tristan Keuris would say) “run down”.
Willem Jeths (1959) first studies music education at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. Disappointed, he transfers to the Utrecht Conservatory and there studies composition with Hans Kox and later Tristan Keuris.
He simultaneously studies musicology at the University of Amsterdam.
He composes Procurans Odium, an orchestral piece that divides the ensemble into five groups of twelve strings. With each musician playing a separate part, and through the use of canonic techniques, sound clouds result. The work is an early example of what would become a mainstay of Jeths' music: using a limited amount of material presented in various forms.
He writes Novelette for violin and piano, in which he distances himself from Keuris' influence (but wins Keuris' praise). In 1988 he graduates from the Utrecht Conservatory and is awarded the Prize for Composition.
Novelette is one of the compositions selected for the ISCM World Music Days in Oslo. Jeths completes his musicological studies with a thesis on the 19th-century composer Elisabeth Kuyper. It is published in the book Zes vrouwelijke componisten [Six Female Composers], Zutphen, Walburg Pers, 1991.
He writes Glenz. In this unconventional violin concerto, interaction between the soloist and orchestra is enriched by a seperate ensemble of nine strings that continuously casts the solo violin's statements in a different sound perspective.
Jeths' receives international recognition when he wins second place (for Glenz) and third place (for his Piano Concerto of 1994) at the international Vienna Composition Competition. On the jury are such distinguished figures as Friedrich Cerha, Franco Donatoni, Gérard Grisey, Wolfgang Rihm en Lothar Knessl.
Theater Lantaren/Venster in Rotterdam organizes a three-day Willem Jeths Festival. Various soloists and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra perform twelve works, among them the premiere of his cello concerto Fas-Nefas. The solist is Frances-Marie Uitti. The Kronos Quartet commissions a piece from Jeths.
The Bandoneon Concerto is premiered during the Holland Festival, performed by Per Arne Glorvigen, to whom it is dedicated, and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Micha Hamel.
The Flugelhorn Concerto, commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, is premiered in September with Peter Masseurs as soloist.
The Kronos Quartet premieres the (third) string quartet they commissioned, Intus Trepidare. Jeths is the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra's composer-in-residence this year and composes the commisioned orchestral piece Seanchai. In addition, he is the Brabant Orchestra's composer-in-residence and composes the clarinet concerto Yellow Darkness. Subsequently, he is the composer-in-residence at De Doelen concert hall in Rotterdam. For the reopening of the renovated Filharmonie concert hall in Haarlem, he writes Ombre Cinesi, a piece for symphony orchestra that is a study for his developing opera Hôtel de Pékin.
He becomes a composition teacher at the Amsterdam Conservatory. The Schönberg Ensemble commissions him to write a piece for two violas and orchestra. Meme is based on an idea from his developing opera Hôtel de Pékin. This season he is the composer-in-residence of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra.
The opera Hôtel de Pékin (Dreams for a Dragon Queen), with a libretto by Friso Haverkamp, is premiered by the Nationale Reisopera on November 21 at the opening of the Muziekkwartier hall in Enschede. The opera recounts the life of the last empress of the Great Empire, Cixi (still a controversial figure in China). The nature of the character created by Jeths and Haverkamp conflicts with the current, censored historical account in China, making a performance in Shanghai unlikely for the time being. The viola concerto Meme is selected by Toonzetters as one of the best pieces of the 2007 season.
The Second Violin Concerto is premiered in the Saturday Matinee series at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw on May 22 by Tasmin Little, violin, and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw. In September, Jeths is a jury member during the Gaudeamus Music Week. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra commissions him to write a piece for the Mahler concerts. Scale is premiered on December 9, conducted by Ed Spanjaard.