Newsletter

Dear friends and colleagues, here a somewhat overdue update of some past and future activities.  Thanks for reading, Ned

SMAK

This wednesday at 15 o'clock is the premliere of a new opera theater show I composed for the ensemble Wervelwind with mezzo Maaike Porthuis and actor Chris Bolczek (from the film Pluk van de Petteflet, among others).  Written for ages '8 and up,' the libretto is by the poet Nafiss Nia and director Michael Helmerhorst made the staging. Being on the 'up' side of the intended public, I had a lot of fun exploring my 8-year-old side while writing the music. 

The premiere takes place in Den Bosch as a part of the November Music festival and other dates are listed  in my agenda and on the Wervelwind website (plus teaser videos).

SMAK

WRENCH

The project Wrench with my band Hexnut and the amazing photographs of Edward Burtynsky finally saw its premiere last may after more than three years in incubation. With new works by Jan-Bas Bollen, David Dramm, Anthony Fiumara, Mayke Nas, Seung-Ah Oh, Steve Ricks, Felipe Waller and myself, Wrench concerts are coming up in nov and the tour continues in 2012.

trailer

Here is an interview I did on dutch tv about it.

Floris Sollefeld wrote a nice blog writeup of our concert during the Gaudeamus Music Week in September.
(Nederlands) (English)

The hexnut website has a lot more info about WRENCH, Hexnut and Edward Burtynsky.

Mumbai Jazz

Last april I had the honor to join the legends Larry Coryell and Ronu Majumdar on tour as a part of the group Mumbai Jazz. Here some moments from our concert in Vienna:

Mumbai Jazz

Hibari

Hibari is a important new project in Japan initiated by the group 'mmm...' to support children orphaned as a result of the earthquke/tsunami last March. 100 composers are taking part and each week two new pieces are being released on internet. I have written a flute solo for the creator Reiko Manabe which will be recorded and released in 2012, but I urge you to support their efforts already.

Hibari

new videos and audios

Last january I played some concerts with the Mysore Brothers and I've uploaded a few clips here and here.  Also with Spinifex Orchestra we played at a surreal festival in Bangalore for around 4000 screaming music lovers.

Further, I uploaded a couple of older recordings here of me playing works by Brian Ferneyhough and Salvatore Sciarrino, back from the days when I was crunching on extreme contemporary flute repertoire.

Teaching

The KMT in Hilversum invited me to teach composition for this year and also I am continuing my 'Carnatic Practices' class both privately and  at the Utrecht Conservatory. If any of the musicians among you want to test yourself on the material, check out an etude I wrote for the class.

Bantammer Swing

The recording of my concerto for contrabass flute and chamber orchestra has been released. Performed by the American Composers Orchestra, Jeffrey Milarsky conducting and myself on the contrabass flute, its available on Instant Enclore, iTunes and Amazon.  Here you can read a review in Lucid Culture.

Apartment for rent in Amsterdam

Just a reminder to the word of mouth network, Keiko and have a studio apartment which we rent out short term (from 1 to 14 days). Send a mail to rivierenbuurtstudio@gmail.com for more info.  Also we are away from our apartment during christmas and new years this year so if anyone would like to spend the holidays in Amsterdam, just let me know.

last but most

I am very happy to share that this summer Keiko Shichijo and I got married.