Michel van der Aa

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Michel van der Aa (Michaël Henri René van der Aa (full name); born March 10, 1970 in Oss , Netherlands ) is a Dutch composer of new music , filmmaker and theater director . His work includes chamber music , orchestral works , ballet music , operas and short films . The special thing about his work is the combination of music with technology. This is what distinguishes his more recent works for musical theater in particular.

Life

In addition to his training as a sound engineer at the Hague Conservatory , Michel van der Aa first took lessons in classical guitar with the Uruguayan guitarist Antonio Pereira Arias (1929–2004) . He then studied composition with Diderik Wagenaar (* 1946), Gilius van Bergeijk and Louis Andriessen . He achieved a certain fame through some compositions for soloists and ensembles. In 2002 he completed his training by studying directing at the New York Film Academy . He achieved greater attention this year with the world premiere of the chamber opera One for soprano, video and soundtrack with Barbara Hannigan as the soloist. He then worked with Peter Greenaway and Hal Hartley , as well as the choreographer Philippe Blanchard. In 2007 a course in stage direction followed at the Director's Lab at the Lincoln Center Theater. He expanded the field of his activities with writing scripts, making films and stage direction.

Van der Aa founded a production company for productions of contemporary music in 1993. Van der Aa's first compositions were premiered in 1995. In 1996, Staring at the Space was the first commissioned composition for the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra. In 1997 and 1998 he was composer in residence at The Hague Percussion Group . Van der Aa was invited to the Donaueschinger Musiktage in 2001 and 2004 . In 2006 his opera After Life premiered at the Holland Festival . In 2010 he founded the music label Disquiet Media for his own works . From 2011 to 2017 he was the resident composer of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra . He was composer-in-residence at the Lucerne Summer Festival 2017 . At the Chamber Music Festival Trondheim from September 26 to 29, 2018, his music was a focus. In October 2019 van der Aa was the focus of the Beijing Music Festival. In this context, the Asian premiere of the virtual reality installation eight took place. On February 28, 2020, van der Aa released the album Time falling, his first indie pop album, in collaboration with Kate Miller-Heidke .

Works (selection)

  • Auburn (1994)
  • Now [in fragments] (1995; ballet music)
  • Oog (1995)
  • Staring at the Space (1995/96; ballet music)
  • Span (1996; withdrawn by the composer)
  • Between (1997)
  • Double (1997)
  • Quadrivial (1997)
  • Solo for percussion (1997)
  • Wake (1997)
  • Faust (1998; ballet music)
  • Above (1999)
  • Caprice (1999)
  • Attach (1999/2000)
  • Just before (2000)
  • See-through (2000)
  • Soundtrack for the short film The New Math (s) (2000)
  • Here [to be found] (2001)
  • Vuur (2001)
  • Here [in circles] (2002)
  • One (2002; chamber opera). The hour-long work was premiered on January 12, 2002 at the Frascati Theater in Amsterdam with the soprano Barbara Hannigan. This was followed by performances at the Berlin Festival , the Festival d'automne à Paris , the Ultima Oslo , the Warsaw Autumn and the Venice Biennale .
  • Passage (2002; short film)
  • Here [enclosed] (2003)
  • Memo (2003)
  • Solitaire (2003; ballet music)
  • Second Self (2004)
  • Imprint (2005)
  • After Life (2005/06; opera)
  • Mask (2006)
  • Spaces of Blank (2007). Song cycle for mezzo-soprano, orchestra and soundtrack based on texts by Emily Dickinson , Rozalie Hirs and Anne Carson , premiered on March 19, 2009 by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the direction of Ed Spanjaard (* 1948) with the soloist Christianne Stotijn (* 1977)
  • Up-Close (2010; Intermedial Cello Concerto) for Sol Gabetta
  • Sunken Garden (2011/12; opera) Text: David Mitchell
  • Violin Concerto (2014) for Janine Jansen . It premiered on November 6, 2014 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir Michailowitsch Jurowski in Amsterdam. It is a commission from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the BFO ( Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester ).
  • The book of sand (2015), an interactive digital song cycle, was published as a website and smartphone app at the end of May 2015 and was created as a joint commission for the Holland Festival , the Sydney Festival and the BBC program The Space .
  • Reversal (2016, orchestra). Commissioned for the Federal Youth Orchestra and the Federal Youth Ballet. The world premiere, performed by both ensembles, took place on January 12, 2017 under the direction of the conductor Alexander Shelley in a choreography by Andrej Kaidanowski.
  • Blank out (2016, opera) based on Ingrid Jonker
  • Shelter for choir a cappella. Commissioned for the Nederlands Kamerkoor [Dutch Chamber Choir] for the project 150 Psalms. The text is based on excerpts from Chapter 5 of the Book of Tehilim . The work was premiered on September 1, 2017 at the Oude Muziek Festival in the Great Hall of Tivoli Vredenburg in Utrecht . The Nederlands Kamerkoor sang under Peter Dijkstra .
  • akin. Concert for solo violin and solo violoncello and orchestra. He wrote the work for the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and the cellist Sol Gabetta. The world premiere with the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Peter Eötvös took place on May 9, 2019 in the Cologne Philharmonic. It was commissioned by the Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Cologne Philharmonic with financial support from the Podiumkunsten Fund and the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.
  • eight . Virtual reality installation for mezzo-soprano, soprano (child), actress, choir, soundtrack (360 ° surround) and virtual reality . Installation from June 4th to 23rd, 2019 with Kate Miller-Heidke and the Nederlands Kamerkoor at the Holland Festival . Commissioned by the Holland Festival, the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence , KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen , the Beijing Festival and the Helsinki Festival .
  • upload. Film Opera, for soprano, baritone, ensemble, soundtrack (surround), film (multiple screens). Commissioned by De Nationale Opera , Cologne Opera , Bregenz Festival , MusikFabrik , Park Avenue Armory and the doubleA Foundation. Published by boosey & Hawks . The world premiere is scheduled for March 21, 2021 at De Nationale Opera.

Awards

Discography (selection)

  • Michel van der Aa featuring Kate Miller-Heidke. Time Falling , published on February 27, 2020 at the Disquiet Media label founded by Michel van der Aa . The video of the song The Aleph was published on YouTube in January . Van der Aa wrote and arranged the songs that were sung by Kate Miller-Heidke.
No. song length
01 Mirrors At Night 5:27
02 Queen Of The Night 4:05
03 What a dream 4:52
04th I think of fire 5:43
05 Identical hands 5:17
06th Let me go 5:02
07th Crimson maze 5:03
8th Asterion 3:30
9 19th step 6:35
10 The Aleph 3:37
11 Asterion (A Capella) 2:57

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Jochem Valkenburg: Aa, Michel [Michaël] (Henri René) van der. In: Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press, September 9, 2009, accessed June 21, 2020 (subscription required).
  2. ↑ a b Michel van der Aa. Lucerne Festival , May 2017, accessed on October 21, 2017 (English).
  3. ↑ Michel van der Aa. In: https://www.lucernefestival.ch/ . Lucerne Festival, May 2017, accessed on June 2, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Vanderaa.net: News: Van der Aa in Beijing. Accessed June 1, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Vanderaa.net: Works: Opera and Music Theater: One. In: https://www.vanderaa.net . Michel van der Aa, accessed on June 21, 2020 (English).
  6. ↑ Michel van der Aa - Virtual International Philharmonic ( Memento from July 2, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )
  7. ↑ Akin. In: Vanderaa.net. Michel van der Aa, accessed on July 9, 2019 (English).
  8. ↑ Vanderaa.net: Works: Opera and Music Theater: Eight. In: https://www.vanderaa.net/ . Michel van der Aa, accessed on July 17, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Vanderaa.net: Works: Opera and Music Theater: Upload. Accessed June 1, 2020 .
  10. ↑ klassik.com news of November 27, 2012 , accessed on November 28, 2012
  11. ↑ Kunststiftung NRW awards the Mauricio Kagel Music Prize 2013 to Michel van der Aa , accessed on January 13, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Aa, Michel van der
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aa, Michaël Henri René van der (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch composer
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Oss , Netherlands