On Thursday 19 April, composer Michel van der Aa will be in the spotlight of Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. In addition to his own music, the adventurous Nieuw Amsterdams Peil will play pieces by kindred spirits chosen by him. Special guest is Wende Snijders, who composed a number of songs with Van der Aa. She also performs solo in the world premiere of the integral cycle For the time being.
Integration of film and music
Michel van der Aa (Oss, 1970) is an extremely successful composer. He likes to blur the boundaries between pop and classical and has won many prizes with pioneering multimedia projects. In doing so, he follows in the footsteps of the largely forgotten Sedje Hémon (1923-2011), who made music from her paintings as early as the 1960s.
Van der Aa's work often involves a combination of film images, electronics and music. After studying composition, he also made filmmaking his own. He attracts international attention because he knows how to find new ways every time.
A first highlight was the chamber opera One (2002), which he composed for the soprano Barbara Hannigan. In it, she goes live a dialogue with her filmed alter ego, with whom she forms an inseparable unit. In 2004, he was awarded the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize for this. Van der Aa further developed the technique in the opera After Life (2006) in which the main characters relive their happiest memories before dying for good.
Opera in 3D
In 2012, Van der Aa made world news with his 3D opera Sunken Garden. This is set in a virtual garden where characters can escape from their responsibilities. With the help of glasses, the audience saw "a 3D designed explosion of brightly coloured plants". In his digital song cycle The Book of Sand (2015) can determine the listener's own path through three different layers of film.
In 2016, Van der Aa took his opera another step further Blank Out, about a woman grieving for her drowned son. In it, he works even more intensely with 3D techniques. Thus, we see the protagonist live "talking" to her three-dimensional spitting image, in image and sound recordings made on the spot by herself.
Unconventional
Van der Aa's unconventional composing attitude is well illustrated by his choice of other pieces. Icelandic Anna Thorvaldsdottir weaves hypnotic sound structures, while British Anna Meredith creates radically pulsating music. In addition, according to the press release, there is "rough, jazzy music" by Swiss Dieter Amman. Finally, there is a world premiere by young Dutch composer Thomas Bensdorp. His The House of Breath #1 'contains elements of an abstract docu-thriller'.
In short, this spotlight portrait is sure to deliver an exciting and varied evening. There will be a try-out in Amstelveen on Wednesday 18 April and a short tour after the premiere.
Info and playlist here.
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