15 December 2024
Dear friends,
As 2024 draws to a close, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on some highlights from the past twelve months. September marked a special milestone with the publication of the first book entirely dedicated to my work. Just two weeks ago my latest work, the VR opera installation F...
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11 September 2024
Some exciting news! The first book fully focusing on my work comes out tomorrow, September 12th.
This book was a collaborative effort written by Stefan Drees, Elisabeth van Treeck, Monika Woitas, Michelle Marx, and many others. The articles in the book are based on a symposium about my work held in ...
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11 March 2024
Michel van der Aa’s latest music theatre work The Book of Water will will mark its German premiere on March 21 at the Kölner Philharmonie. The performance stars actor Samuel West and a string quartet from Ensemble Modern, with actor Timothy West and soprano Mary Bevan on film.
The Book of Water...
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18 December 2023
Dear Friends,
As we approach the close of 2023, I find myself looking back on the year’s memorable moments and accomplishments. I’d love to share with you a mix of my professional highlights, alongside my favourite books, series, performances and software of the past year.
First, let me ...
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12 May 2023
Michel van der Aa’s acclaimed chamber opera Blank Out is returning to the city where it had its world premiere in 2016. After touring through 11 countries, the opera will be performed at Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ on 28 May. Van der Aa has quite a high profile at the Muziekgebouw at th...
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4 April 2023
Michel van der Aa’s acclaimed music theatre work The Book of Water will continue its tour around Asia, with two performances in South Korea on 4 and 5 April at the Tongyeong International Music Festival. The multimedia opera had its Asian premiere in February 2023 at the Hong Kong Arts Festival, w...
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30 December 2022
Dear friends,
As we approach the end of 2022, I’d like to share with you my favorite books, series, music, and software of the past year.
First, some professional highlights: the US premiere of Upload at the Park Avenue Armory in New York last spring was a dream come true. The Armory is such a...
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4 November 2022
Michel van der Aa’s latest music theatre work The Book of Water will have its Dutch and Belgian premieres on 11 and 12 November. The performance stars actor Samuel West and a string quartet from Amsterdam Sinfonietta, with actor Timothy West and soprano Mary Bevan on film.
‘The Book of Water’ ...
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28 August 2022
World premiere of ‘The Book of Water’
Michel van der Aa’s latest music theatre work ‘The Book of Water’ will have its world premiere on 19 September at 20:00 in the Teatro Goldoni in Venice, Italy, as part of the Venice Biennale.
The piece is based on a novella, ‘Man in the Holocene’ b...
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8 March 2022
Dear friends,
I hope you are all well. Despite the air of anxiety and insecurity around the war in Ukraine, the arts scene seems to be slowly picking up the pieces after two years of Covid lockdowns and cancellations. I’m so happy to be at live performances again. How I’ve missed the energy and ...
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30 December 2021
Dear friends,
What better way to use these last days of the year than to look back and think about the highlights of 2021? In this blog post I’d like to share with you my favourite books, series, music and software of the past year. But first I’d like to acknowledge the obvious: this has...
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29 October 2021
From 6-13 November, Michel van der Aa’s virtual-reality installation Eight will be presented as part of the November Music festival in the southern Dutch city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch. This spectacular fifteen-minute installation is experienced by one visitor at a time in the Verkadefabriek venue.
Ei...
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19 September 2021
Five staged performances of Upload are presented by Dutch National Opera this autumn, opening in Amsterdam on 1 October and starring singers Julia Bullock and Roderick Williams. Otto Tausk conducts Ensemble Musikfabrik and the direction of the stage production and immersive film are by the composer....
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25 April 2021
“Upload”, the new film opera by Michel van der Aa exploring how life could become eternal in the digital sphere, receives its stage premiere at the Bregenz Festival on 29 July. A film version will be screened by Medici TV and streamed by Dutch National Opera from 19 July.
The world stage...
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19 September 2020
Ensemble MusikFabrik
In the coming week three of Van der Aa’s works will be performed in Germany:
Shades of Red, a new piece for ensemble and soundtrack, will have its world premiere on Monday 21 September at the Philharmonie in Cologne. Performed by Ensemble MusikFabrik and conducted by Jo...
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7 March 2020
Michel van der Aa releases debut indie-pop album featuring Kate Miller-Heidke ‘Time Falling’: A kaleidoscopic concept album centred around the theme of infinity.
Available now on all platforms, with limited edition high definition vinyl double LP and CD also be available through Disquiet Media...
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3 October 2019
Still from Eight
This year’s Beijing Music Festival, which takes place throughout October, will feature Michel van der Aa as its artist in focus.
Central to this focus will be the virtual reality installation Eight, which will be installed for more than two weeks, between the 10th and 27th Octobe...
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3 October 2019
Michele Marelli
Hysteresis, which receives its Chinese premiere on 25 October, will have its Italian premiere at the Venice Biennale earlier in the same month.
Michel van der Aa’s 2013 clarinet concerto will be performed by Michele Marelli, with contemporary music specialists the Orchestra della ...
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28 May 2019
In May Michel van der Aa’s dramatic and explosive concerto for violin and cello akin received both its world premiere (at the Philharmonie in Cologne) and its Dutch premiere (at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw). ‘akin’ was written specially for violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and celli...
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28 May 2019
Visitors to this year’s Holland Festival will be able to experience a truly trailblazing premiere with Eight, Michel van der Aa’s latest work of ‘mixed reality’ music theatre. Created with the designer Theun Mosk and virtual reality company The Virtual Dutch Men, ‘Eight’ is a u...
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28 April 2019
Akin, the new double concerto by Michel van der Aa for violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and cellist Sol Gabetta, receives first performances in Cologne and Amsterdam in May.
Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and cellist Sol Gabetta are soloists in Michel van der Aa’s new double concer...
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21 February 2019
Composer and director Michel van der Aa has signed an exclusive contract with the London-based artist agency Intermusica for worldwide project management.
Intermusica is one of the leading international agencies in the field of classical music, representing some of the world’s foremost conductor...
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13 September 2018
This summer saw Michel van der Aa launch a new artistic foundation dedicated to the development of innovative music theatre works with an international profile.
With Van der Aa as its Artistic Director, the doubleA Foundation aims to support the production and touring of new and existing works tha...
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13 September 2018
Miah Persson, Roderick Williams
Later this month Michel van der Aa will be the featured composer at the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival in a major Scandinavian presentation of his work.
A total of nine pieces have been programmed at the festival, from Memo and Quadrivial to the concertos Up-Close ...
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23 April 2018
Wende & Michel van der Aa
‘Super kaleidoscopic’ is how Michel van der Aa describes a programme he has curated for the ensemble Nieuw Amsterdams Peil. Devised for the ensemble’s 2018 Spotlight series, it includes chamber works by Van der Aa, as well as by composers he is inspired by. Van d...
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16 April 2018
Janine Jansen
Two major premieres in the USA last month have won widespread acclaim, continuing Van der Aa’s successful US season. On 8 March Janine Jansen gave the first US performance of the composer’s Violin Concerto, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, following this...
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21 February 2018
Janine Jansen
March 8 kicks off a busy month for Michel van der Aa, who has two major works receiving US premieres: his 2014 Violin Concerto for Janine Jansen, being performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Philadelphia and later at Carnegie Hall in New York; and his film-opera Sunken Garden, p...
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8 December 2017
Ana Moura
The Book of Disquiet is to receive its first Greek performances on 15 and 16 December, at the Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens. Making use of a new Greek translation by Annie Spyrakou, the opera will feature the actor Miltiadis Fiorentzis, and the Greek contemporary music group Ergon Ens...
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25 October 2017
Miah Persson
Michel van der Aa’s 3D chamber opera Blank Out has completed a highly successful US premiere run in New York. All five performances at the Park Avenue Armory in September were sold out, and the work received rave reviews from the press.
James R. Oestreich of The New York Times called...
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16 October 2017
Sunken Garden
On 21 October the NTR ZaterdagMatinee will host the first performance of the semi-staged version of Van der Aa’s fourth opera, Sunken Garden at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. A re-imagining of the work, based on its second version made for Opéra de Lyon in 2015, it will be then ta...
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14 October 2017
Up-close, Vakil Eelman
This August and September, Michel van der Aa will be composer-in-residence at the Lucerne Summer Festival, one of the world’s most celebrated festivals of classical music. Over the course of a month a large cross-selection of Van der Aa’s works, including music theatre, c...
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25 November 2016
Sunken Garden
The 2017–18 season will see the US premieres of Michel van der Aa’s two most recent operas. First, in September 2017 the Park Avenue Armory in New York will stage Blank Out in five performances with the soprano Miah Persson. This follows performances in four other countries this y...
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22 October 2016
Blank Out
The 2016/17 season is here, and it is already looking like a busy one for Michel van der Aa. Top of the agenda is an international tour of Blank Out. Following successful performances in Amsterdam and Rome – with the press describing the work as ‘impeccable and enthralling’, and ‘...
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17 June 2016
Miah Persson
May 31 sees the Italian premiere of Michel van der Aa’s chamber opera for soprano and 3D film Blank Out at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome. The one-off performance forms part of Teatro dell’opera di Roma’s Fast Forward Festival, and will be sung by Miah Persson.
It follow...
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25 May 2016
Miah Persson
Michel van der Aa’s new chamber opera, Blank Out will be premiered in March at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Amsterdam. Commissioned by Dutch National Opera’s Opera Forward Festival, it is based upon the life and work of Ingrid Jonker. Sometimes described as the “South African Sy...
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24 May 2016
Janine Jansen
Two new releases have been issued on Michel Van der Aa’s record label Disquiet. The first (DQM05) features two recent concertos, the clarinet concerto ‘Hysteresis’ (2013), and the ‘Violin Concerto’ (2014). Both are performed on the recording by their dedicate...
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28 February 2016
Samuel West
The Book of Disquiet has recently received its first US and UK performances, in a new English-language production starring Samuel West. One of Van der Aa’s most critically acclaimed works, The Book of Disquiet sets the posthumous “‘factless autobiography” of Bernardo Soares, alt...
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27 February 2016
This year’s Lyon Biennale Musiques en Scéne, which begins on 1 March, will have Michel van der Aa as its featured composer. In line with its theme this year of “the entertained man,” or life in a post-digital world, Van der Aa will be represented by works that touch on matters of social med...
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14 January 2016
Samuel West
One of Michel van der Aa’s most critically acclaimed works is to receive its first US and UK performances at the start of 2016. The Book of Disquiet is Van der Aa’s third music theatre work, and will be produced in a new English-language version. Both US and UK performances will fea...
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14 January 2016
Roderick Williams
Just two months before its world premiere, work is progressing quickly on Van der Aa’s new 3D chamber opera, Blank Out. Building on the technical innovation of Sunken Garden, Blank Out combines live action and 3D video to explore the nature of memory and the effects of trauma.
I...
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21 July 2015
Michel van der Aa has been awarded the prestigious Johannes Vermeer Award, the Dutch state prize for the arts.
Worth a total of 100,000 euros, the Johannes Vermeer Award has been presented since 2009 to outstanding artists across all disciplines who are working in the Netherlands. Previous winners...
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17 June 2015
Kate Miller-Heidke
Michel van der Aa breaks new ground again this month with the premiere of his interactive song cycle, The Book of Sand. Created in partnership with the Holland Festival, Sydney Festival, Google Cultural Institute, BBC The Space and other partners, and created exclusively in digit...
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14 May 2015
Miah Persson
‘Blank Out’, Michel van der Aa’s latest work for music theatre, will receive its first three performances next spring at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Amsterdam, performed by Dutch National Opera. A chamber opera for soprano (Miah Persson) and baritone (Roderick Williams)...
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8 March 2015
Janine Jansen
Michel Van der Aa’s Violin Concerto may be his first major work without electronics in almost a decade, but that did not stop it earning strong reviews after its first performances in The Netherlands, Germany and Norway.
‘Your ears are popping to put it mildly,’ said Peter van ...
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8 March 2015
Sunken Garden
Sunken Garden is about to receive its first French performances at Opéra de Lyon, from 15 to 20 March. However, tickets will be hard to come by – all five shows sold out months ago.
The opera has had successful runs already in London and Amsterdam, but this will be the first outing...
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28 October 2014
Janine Jansen
Michel van der Aa’s new Violin Concerto for Janine Jansen will receive its first performances on 6 and 7 November in Amsterdam, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. It will then be performed in Essen, Germany, on 8 November and on 4 December in Berg...
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23 April 2014
Here [enclosed]
Michel van der Aa’s new clarinet concert Hysteresis will receive its world premiere in London on 30 April. The performance is part of a portrait concert given by the London Sinfonietta that will also feature the UK premiere of the complete Here Trilogy (with soprano Claron McFadde...
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12 February 2014
Michel van der Aa has been selected to be an inaugural member of a prestigious new Academy of Arts in the Netherlands.
A new initiative supported by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Academy forms part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been esta...
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11 February 2014
Kaori Yamagami, White Light Fest NYC
Originally written for Sol Gabetta and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Michel van der Aa’s Up-Close is being taken up by a growing number of soloists and ensembles since winning the Grawemeyer Prize for Composition a year ago.
Several of these performances have...
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13 September 2013
Sunken Garden
Michel van der Aa’s latest opera, Sunken Garden, made a splash on its premiere run at London’s Barbican Theatre. As the first opera to use 3D video it was sure to receive a lot of advance publicity. But the performances themselves attracted international media attention, and polar...
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7 September 2013
Up-close
Up-close and US performances
The 2013–14 season looks set to be another busy one for Michel van der Aa. It begins in the USA, where several of his works are being performed this autumn. The White Light Festival at New York’s Lincoln Centre will include a Van der Aa portrait on 28 O...
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10 April 2013
Sunken Garden
We are pleased to announce details of Michel van der Aa’s new opera, Sunken Garden.
A truly international endeavour, Sunken Garden will be a five-way co-production between English National Opera, Toronto Luminato Festival, Opera de Lyon, Holland Festival and London’s Barbican ...
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19 March 2013
The North Rhine-Westphalia Arts Foundation has announced that the Mauricio Kagel Music Prize for 2013 will be awarded, by unanimous vote, to Michel van der Aa. The award will be presented on 28 April during the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik.
The Mauricio Kagel Music Prize is given to interna...
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26 November 2012
PRESS RELEASE – BOOSEY & HAWKES – 26 November 2013
Dutch composer Michel van der Aa has won the 2013 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for his multimedia work Up-Close, which offers a unique blend of cello concerto with film.
The Grawemeyer Award, granted annually by the Univ...
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6 November 2012
Sol Gabetta, Michel van der Aa
Listeners interested in the evening performance of Up-Close at the ‘s-Hertogenbosch November Music Festival on 11th November may like to know that at lunchtime on the same day NTR Podium, a specialist music and dance programme of Dutch national TV, will broadcas...
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4 November 2012
The 8th November sees the official launch of Disquiet TV, a new virtual auditorium for contemporary music established in conjunction with Michel van der Aa’s multimedia label Disquiet. As well as offering live concerts streams, Disquiet TV brings its audience uniquely close to the music through ...
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4 November 2012
Vakil Eelman
Michel van der Aa’s concerto for cello, string ensemble and film, Up-Close, will feature in two composer portrait concerts taking place in the Netherlands this month. These will be the first performances of this widely acclaimed work since its premiere tour of six of Europe’s leadi...
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19 August 2012
Yvette Bonner, Roderick Williams
The prestigious Melbourne International Arts Festival will open on 11 October 2012 with Michel van der Aa’s first full-length opera After Life.
Original cast members Roderick Williams (Aiden), Richard Suart (Mr. Walter), Helena Rasker (Bryna), and Yvette Bonner (S...
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13 August 2012
Prinsengrachtfestival
Amsterdam’s Prinsengracht canal on the 18 August will see the first performance of a new vocal work by Michel van der Aa. A setting of a poem by the British Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, And how are we today? is a new commission for the Amsterdam Prinsengrachtconcert.
The P...
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26 April 2012
International Contemporary Ensemble
Audiences in Washington, DC, will be able to hear the music of Michel van der Aa at the world-renowned Phillips Collection art gallery on 9th and 10th May.
On 10th May the International Contemporary Ensemble will perform a concert of the composer’s chamber...
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24 April 2012
Sol Gabetta, Vakil Eelman
The UK’s Gramophone magazine this month made Up-Close its “must see” DVD of the month, describing it as “undoubtedly the most impressive yet” of Disquiet Media’s four releases so far. “The way these worlds [of film and concert platform] constantly alternate ...
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12 March 2012
David Mitchell
Advance details have been released of Michel van der Aa’s new opera Sunken Garden. Composed with the novelist David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet), the opera is for three singers, chamber ensemble and electronics, and will make use of 2D and 3D film. ...
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19 November 2011
Sol Gabetta
The fourth and latest release on the Disquiet label is Michel van der Aa’s concerto for cello, string ensemble and film, Up-Close. It is performed on the recording by its dedicatees, the Argentinean cellist Sol Gabetta and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, who have already played the piece t...
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31 August 2011
Disquiet
Disquiet, the multimedia label set up in 2010 by Michel van der Aa, celebrates its first birthday on 28th August.
The label’s successful first year has seen its first three releases – CDs of Spaces of Blank and the Here trilogy, and a DVD of Van der Aa’s first video opera, One – r...
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7 June 2011
BBC Symphony Orchestra
London’s Spitalfields Summer Festival will host the UK premiere of Michel van der Aa’s Spaces of Blank on 18 June 2011. The internationally acclaimed singer Stephanie Marshall will appear at the elegant Christ Church Spitalfields venue, supported by the BBC Symphony Orche...
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13 May 2011
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Following five-star performances in Linz, Amsterdam and Porto in 2009 and 2010, Michel van der Aa’s third stage work, The Book of Disquiet , will receive its German premiere at the Staatstheater Saarbrücken on 20 May 2011.
The libretto to The Book of Disquiet is constructe...
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22 April 2011
Sol Gabetta, Amsterdam Sinfonietta
Up-Close, Michel van der Aa’s multimedia cello concerto for Sol Gabetta and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, received its world premiere on 11th March at the Konserthuset in Stockholm to great critical acclaim. It was described in Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter newspaper a...
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22 April 2011
‘One’ DVD
Michel van der Aa’s video opera One has been released on the composer’s Disquiet label. Following CDs of Spaces of Blank/Mask/Imprint and Here Trilogy, One is Disquiet’s third release. In addition to a DVD release, One is also available for purchase as a standard and hig...
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1 March 2011
Sol Gabetta
Michel van der Aa’s Up-close combines cellist Sol Gabetta, string orchestra and film for a European tour (11-20 March)
Van der Aa has made waves with a series of cutting-edge cross-media works, and his newest score has been created for Argentinian-French cellist Sol Gabetta leadin...
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28 February 2011
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Michel van der Aa has been announced as one of three ‘house composers’ for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. This is a long-term partnership with one of the world’s great orchestras and will lead to the creation of several major new works over the n...
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5 February 2011
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Michel van der Aa’s song cycle Spaces of Blank is to receive its British premiere on 18 June 2011. Internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Stephanie Marshall will be supported by the BBC Symphony Orchestra as part of London’s renowned Spitalfields Summer Festival.
In addi...
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5 November 2010
CD giveaway
The first two CDs on Michel van der Aa’s Disquiet label – Spaces of Blank and Here Trilogy – have been receiving great reviews, and to celebrate the label is preparing a ‘follower giveaway’ for its online fans.
To enter, all you need do is ‘like’ Disquiet on Facebook or f...
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20 October 2010
Thom Hoffman, Tania Kross
Michel van der Aa’s new 1-minute opera ‘With my ear to the ground’ about the rescued Chilean mineworkers received its premiere on the Dutch prime-time TV show De Wereld Draait Door.
Composed, rehearsed, filmed and edited in just one day, the opera portrays th...
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20 October 2010
Network for new music in Hamburg
Hamburg’s Klang! network for new music has selected Michel van der Aa as its composer-in-residence for 2010–11.
As well as including lectures and masterclasses given by the composer, the season will feature four weekends focusing on Van der Aa’s chamber, ensem...
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29 September 2010
Sol Gabetta
Van der Aa is currently working on a commission from the European Concert Hall Organization (ECHO) for solo cello, string ensemble and film.
Cellist Sol Gabetta will join Amsterdam Sinfonietta for a European tour of six performances in March 2011. Venues include the Stockholm Konserthu...
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22 September 2010
disquiet media
Michel van der Aa has founded Disquiet Media, a new multimedia label that embraces unfurling technologies in a wide spectrum of the arts. Based in Amsterdam, it focuses on compositions and music theatre works that are firmly rooted in twenty-first century life.
Combining staging, fil...
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8 July 2010
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Following the successful Portuguese premiere of The Book of Disquiet in February in Porto, the work will be performed in its original German version at the Wroclaw Film Festival (Polish premiere) on 1 August 2010 by musikFabrik, conducted by Joana Carneiro. Actor Klaus Maria B...
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21 June 2010
twitter.com/vanderaanet
Connect with Michel van der Aa via the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. Instant updates offer a glimpse behind the scenes at rehearsals, premieres and international events, and give you the chance to interact with Michel personally.
facebook.com/michelvanderaa
t...
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7 June 2010
Roderick Williams
The 2009/2010 tour of the opera After Life, with staged productions in Amsterdam and Lyon, concluded with a semi-staged performance at London’s Barbican Centre. In Amsterdam, De Nederlandse Opera presented a 5-performance revival; Opéra de Lyon produced the work as part of ...
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8 May 2010
Barbican Centre ‘After Life’ page
The London Barbican Centre made a mini-site for the 15 May After Life performance. Book your ticket, view behind-the-scene footage, and watch the opera trailer.
Submit your one memory which you would take with you into the After Life, and a lucky few w...
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17 April 2010
De Artiestenfoyer
A 60-minute interview with Michel van der Aa was recorded for the television program “De Artiestenfoyer”. The program’s host, Frénk van der Linden, asks Michel about Bach, defining moments and how to deal with the roller-coaster in his head.
Excerpts of the wor...
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6 March 2010
Joao Reis, Casa da Música
Van der Aa’s latest work, Rekindle for flute and soundtrack, received its world premiere on 14 February 2010 during a Composer’s Portrait concert in Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge.
The work will also be presented in Villa Romana, Florence on 6 March in a concert entitled...
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6 March 2010
Bryna’s film shoot
The opera After Life, following its successful revival by De Nederlandse Opera in the fall of 2009, will be staged at Opera de Lyon on 18, 20 and 21 March 2010. The same excellent cast will return, accompanied by the ASKO|Schoenberg Ensemble and conductor Otto Tausk.
These ...
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23 January 2010
Joao Reis
A new version of the music theatre work The Book of Disquiet with actor João Reis and Remix Ensemble will be premiered on 9 February 2010 in Casa da Música in Porto. This alternative version, which uses the original Portuguese texts by Fernando Pessoa, will be fully staged. Additionally...
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23 January 2010
Kettle’s Yard
Van der Aa’s latest work, Rekindle for flute and soundtrack, will be premiered on 14 February 2010 during a Composer’s Portrait concert in Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. Jane Mitchell is the flutist.
Rekindle integrates the play of changing perspectives between liv...
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23 January 2010
Dutch premiere at ZaterdagMatinee
Michel van der Aa’s most recent music theatre work The Book of Disquiet was chosen “Best classical music of 2009” by two music critics from the Dutch quality newspaper NRC Handelsblad.
Mischa Spel: “Groundbreaking music theatre displayed a multimedi...
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5 December 2009
Sarah Nicolls
Van der Aa’s latest work Transit received a successful world premiere on 21 November 2009 at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, featuring Sarah Nicolls on piano.
Transit combines material from the piano piece Just Before and Van der Aa’s short film Passage.
In Trans...
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4 November 2009
Klaus Maria Brandauer, Ana Moura
Following its premiere in Linz in January, van der Aa’s The Book of Disquiet received its Dutch premiere at the Saturday Matinee concert at the Concertgebouw on 10 October, with actor Klaus Maria Brandauer in the leading role.
Brandauer appeared on stage as well ...
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26 October 2009
After Life at the Muziektheater
Michel van der Aa’s opera After Life returned to De Nederlandse Opera last month to great public and critical acclaim. After Life, based on the film by Hirokazu Kore-Eda, was premiered at the 2006 Holland Festival in a sold-out run at the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, ...
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20 September 2009
Margriet van Reisen
The successful opera After Life, following its sold-out performances at the 2006 Holland Festival, will be staged in Amsterdam, London and Lyon in the 2009/2010 season.
In Amsterdam, De Nederlandse Opera presents the newly revised version in Het Muziektheater in September/Octob...
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20 September 2009
Christianne Stotijn & Michel van der Aa
Michel Van der Aa’s new song cycle Spaces of Blank for mezzo-soprano, orchestra and soundtrack was successfully premiered on 19 March in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. The Dutch mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn was soloist, with the Royal Concertgebo...
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15 September 2009
Making of ‘After Life’
To get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a contemporary opera, you can follow a four-episode video documentary online. Various aspects of the making of ‘After Life’, including film shoots, stage technique, interviews with the cast and an inside...
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2 September 2009
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
On 28 February 2009 the BBC Scottish Orchestra performed four compositions by Van der Aa in its Composer Portrait series in Glasgow, under the direction of Franck Ollu. The full-length evening programme featured the works Here [enclosed], Memo, Second Self (all UK pr...
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30 August 2009
Vrije Geluiden
VPRO Television aired a one hour documentary about the work of Michel van der Aa.
The program includes excerpts of Memo, Here [in circles], One and Passage in performances by Maaike Aarts, the ASKO Ensemble and Barbara Hannigan. There is a streaming video of the documentary on the V...
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27 August 2009
Barbara Hannigan in One
The chamber opera One received great public and critical acclaim after its performances on the Berliner Festspiele and Festival d’Automne a Paris.
“Mastery of the deviation. With its absence of person psychology the piece spreads its aura over generations, since it r...
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27 August 2009
Winfried Jacobs & Michel van der Aa
Michel van der Aa has signed a new exclusive publishing contract with Boosey & Hawkes. All future works by Van der Aa will be published by Boosey & Hawkes while his oeuvre prior to 2001 remains with Donemus MGN.
...
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27 August 2009
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Van der Aa: Oog for cello and soundtrack (U.S. premiere). The Green Umbrella: “Solos Night”, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, California, Monday, November 3, 2003
I confess that only one work really grabbed me by t...
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25 August 2009
ASKO | Schönberg
Michel van der Aa travelled to Berlin last month for the first complete performance of his Here trilogy, a 60-minute cycle of works for soprano, chamber orchestra and soundtrack built up between 2001 and 2003. The performers at the successful Berlin Festival performance were sopra...
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25 August 2009
Joe Bendavid in Passage
Two works of Michel van der Aa were performed during this years Netherlands Music Days.
On 10 December Second Self received its Dutch premiere in Utrecht from the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under Ed Spanjaard. Van der Aa’s fascination with creating sonic doubles is ...
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25 August 2009
Barbara Hannigan in One
Michel van der Aa has received the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize 2004 for his chamber opera One. The prestigious Dutch composition prize, which amounts to EUR 7,500, is awarded every year for a significant new musical work.
One, composed in 2002 for soprano, video and sound track...
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24 August 2009
In February 2005 the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation announced that Michel van der Aa will receive one of the foundation’s Composer Grants. The prize, worth 30.000 euros, was presented at the official awards ceremony during the Münchner Kammerspielen on 3 June 2005. To mark the occasion, pia...
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24 August 2009
Michel van der Aa has been awarded one of the Charlotte Köhler Prizes 2005. The Charlotte Köhler Prize is an annual award granted by the Prins Bernhard Culture Funds to three artists in the field of theatre. Michel van der Aa received the prize in recognition of his directing work and for the in...
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24 August 2009
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will perform Van der Aa’s orchestral work Second Self as part of the commemoration of 400 years of bilateral relations between Australia and the Netherlands. The concert will take place on May 15 during the Metropolis Festival in M...
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24 August 2009
One, Barbara Hannigan & Sheila Wiersum
The Holland Festival will feature composer Michel van der Aa in a two-week musical portrait, with four key works being performed in venues throughout Amsterdam. In addition to the world premiere of After Life, the ASKO/Schönberg Ensemble will perform the ...
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24 August 2009
Roderick Williams & Yvette Bonner
Michel van der Aa’s new opera After Life was successfully performed on 2 June as the opening feature of the Holland Festival 2006. The premiere in the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ was the first in a series of six sold-out performances. After Life, perform...
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24 August 2009
Michel van der Aa has been awarded the 2006 Paul Hindemith Prize. The Hindemith Prize, worth 20,000 euros, was awarded during a gala concert on 28 July 2006 at Reinbek Castle, near Hamburg. The programme, performed by Maaike Aarts (violin), Benjamin Kobler (piano) and Clare Gallagher (sound techni...
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24 August 2009
About Baroque CD cover
Michel van der Aa’s virtuosic work Imprint, part of the Siemens Arts Program’s project ‘About Baroque’, has been released on compact disc by Harmonia Mundi. The Freiburger Barokorchester, led by Gottfried von der Goltz, performed the compositions on this live ...
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24 August 2009
MusikFabrik
MusikFabrik and the ASKO Ensemble performed the European premieres of Mask, a new work for ensemble and soundtrack. The work was commissioned by Kunststiftung NRW, Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst and Casa da Música, Porto.
In Mask, musical layers are covered and revealed. Over...
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22 August 2009
TURA New Music Festival
On Wednesday August 8th the Australian radio station ABC Classic FM will broadcast Here [in circles] and Here [to be found]. Recorded earlier this year in the Art Gallery of Western Australia during the TURA New Music Festival. The broadcast starts at 8.00 pm; ‘In Perf...
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22 August 2009
Lincoln Center Directors Lab
In April/May 2007 Van der Aa was a featured composer at the Tura New Music Festival in Perth, Australia. Among his works performed were the Here trilogy, Auburn, Just Before, Quadrivial and the film Passage. He also gave the keynote address on After Life.
On 1 June Deu...
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22 August 2009
Ensemble Modern
Following successful performances in Cologne, Venice, Brussels, Sardinia, Valencia, Porto and Amsterdam in 2006, Mask continues to be programmed by prominent European ensembles and concert halls.
Ensemble Modern successfully performed the work in Frankfurt on 2 April. Future perfor...
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22 August 2009
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Michel van der Aa’s newest music theatre piece, The Book of Disquiet was successfully performed on 2 January as the official opening of the LINZ09 (Austria) European Capital of Culture year. The premiere in the Hafenhalle was the first in a series of three sold-out perfo...
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22 August 2009
Klaus Maria Brandauer & Ana Moura
Michel van der Aa will soon be appearing at De Nederlandse Opera, the Saturday Matinee and the Dutch Music Days with three of his most important works: the opera After Life, the multimedia work The Book of Disquiet with actor Klaus Maria Brandauer in the leadin...
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