Catching Up 3: Agua

    One of the nicest jobs I have is coaching the YoungNBE every year; the parallel ensemble of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble with ten young talented wind players from the Netherlands or studying at an Academy of Music in the Netherlands. This is how I got to know Teresa Costa, a great young flutist from Portugal. She and her musical partner Agostinho Sequeira did a tour with contemporary Dutch and Portuguese music to be performed in those two countries and asked me to write a piece for this tour. Agua is the result of that request. Here you can find more info on the piece and also a recording. Agostinho was the winner of the Tromp Percussion Competition in 2020, receiving also the audience prize and the Jan Pustjens press prize. Teresa is a great multi-talented artist, see a glimpse of that in this article.

    Similar Posts

    • Duo Lorenci-Mlacnik

      It’s been quite a time that I posted something, to busy composing (for Mirasol Duo, Studenten Cantorij Utrecht – Ties Mellema and Arno Piters) and performing (with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble). More on the new compositions soon. This post about a wonderful sax-percussion duo from Slovenia, Janina Lorenci and Lola Mlacnik, both studying at the…

    • Premiere of a friend’s music

      Yesterday I had the great pleasure of hearing a new work of a dear friend being premiered. Composer Perry Goldstein wrote …shreds and patches… for pianist Gilbert Kalish and it was premiered in the (New York) Lincoln Center Chamber Music series on April 30. I met Perry in 1994 when as a member of the…

    • Update on Clarinet pieces

      Yesterday I had a first run-through with Harmen de Boer, my friend and colleague at both the Netherlands Wind Ensemble and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam,  of the clarinet-version of Consecuencias. A very promising and interesting run-through. He will be premiering it with the Nostos String Quartet at the Lago@Splendor concert on March 28, 2016, at…

    • TIEF and Marijn Migchielsen

      Last Monday Marijn Migchielsen and Rommert Groenhof premiered my TIEF! for two contrabass trombones at Marijn’s Masters Exam at Codarts Rotterdam, the Netherlands. And I could not be there….. (family reasons) I wrote the piece especially for this occasion. To miss one of the most outstanding bass trombone performances ever (at least that is what…

    • Adaptation Canciones Flamencas

      The sax/percussion duo Lorenci/Mlacnik from Slovenia (both of them studying in Amsterdam at the ConservatoriumVanAmsterdam) asked to make an alto sax version of the three Canciones Flamencas, originally for soprano saxophone and marimba (+ bass drum ad lib.). I am a fan of the duo so I could not say no although I am really…

    • New commission for clarinet solo

      When in Porto last week I got a phone call from clarinettist Harmen de Boer. He asked me if I would be interested writing a solo piece for clarinet for the upcoming https://www.facebook.com/klarinetfestival in the Amsterdam Muziekgebouw aan het IJ as he is co-hosting this huge festival. Did not take me too long to answer…