Michel van der Aa

This is a Dutch name; the family name is van der Aa, not Aa.

Michel van der Aa (born 10 March 1970 in Oss, Netherlands) is a Dutch composer of contemporary classical music.

Early years

Michel van der Aa trained as a recording engineer at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. He studied composition with Diderik Wagenaar, Gilius van Bergeijk and Louis Andriessen.

Career

The music of Van der Aa has been performed by ensembles and orchestras internationally. Those include the Asko/Schönberg Ensemble, Freiburger Barockorchester, Ensemble Modern, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, De Nederlandse Opera, Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg, Seattle Chamber Players, Ensemble Nomad Tokyo, musikFabrik, Continuum Ensemble Toronto, SWR Orchestra Baden-Baden & Freiburg, Netherlands Radio Orchestras, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra Sweden, and the Helsinki Avanti Ensemble.

He completed a short program in film directing at the New York Film Academy in 2002. He also participated in the Lincoln Center Theater Director's Lab, a short, intensive course in stage direction in 2007.

Michel van der Aa's music theatre works, including the chamber opera One (2002), the opera After Life (2006, Amsterdam) and the music theatre work "The Book of Disquiet", have received international critical and public acclaim.^{[citation needed]} The innovative aspect of these operas is their use of film images and sampled soundtracks as an essential element of the score.^{[citation needed]} Staging, film and music are interwoven into a collage of transparent layers, resulting in a work that is part documentary film and part philosophy.^{[citation needed]}

He directed the television production of One for the Dutch national broadcasting company NPS. Passage (2004), a short film by van der Aa, has been shown at several international festivals and has been aired on Dutch national television.

He has been a featured artist at the Perth Tura New Music Festival and Holland Festival. He has collaborated with choreographers such as Kazuko Hirabayashi, Philippe Blanchard, Ben Wright and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.^{[citation needed]}

Awards

Van der Aa was recipient of the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 1999. He also received the prestigious Matthijs Vermeulen Award for One in 2004. He received the Siemens Composers Prize in 2005. He also received the Charlotte Köhler Prize for his directing work and the interdisciplinary character of his oeuvre in the same year. He was awarded the Paul Hindemith Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in 2006.

Current projects

Van der Aa is currently working on a new 3D film-opera entitled Zela Law in collaboration with David Mitchell (author of Cloud Atlas)^[1], as well as new works for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as part of his long-term partnership with that group,^[2] which will include a large orchestral work, a solo concerto, and an evening-length Passion setting for soloists, choir and orchestra, expected to première in 2017. ^[3]

His music is recorded on the Harmonia Mundi, Col Legno, Composers’ Voice, BVHaast, and VPRO Eigenwijs labels.

Works

Opera & Music Theatre

• Vuur (2001), opera for solo voice, actors, singers, ensemble & soundtrack
• One (2002), chamber opera soprano, soundtrack & film
  • libretto by the composer
• After Life (2005-06), for opera for six solo voices, ensemble, soundtrack & film
  • libretto by the composer, after Hirokazu Kore-Eda
• The Book of Disquiet (2008), music theatre for actor, ensemble, soundtrack & film
  • libretto after Fernando Pessoa, adapted by the composer

Orchestra

• See-Through (2000), for orchestra
• Here [to be found] (2001), for soprano, chamber orchestra & soundtrack
• Here [enclosed] (2003), for chamber orchestra & soundtrack
• Second Self (2004), for orchestra & soundtrack
• Imprint (2005), for Baroque orchestra
• Spaces of Blank (2007), song-cycle for mezzo-soprano, orchestra & soundtrack

Ensemble

• Span (1996), for ensemble & soundtrack
• Between (1997), for percussion quartet & soundtrack
• Above (1999), for ensemble & soundtrack
• Attach (1999-2000), for ensemble & soundtrack
• Here [in circles] (2002), for soprano (with small cassette player) & ensemble
• Mask (2006), for ensemble & soundtrack
• Up-Close (2010), concerto for solo cello, strings ensemble/orchestra, soundtrack & film

Chamber Music

• Auburn (1994), for guitar (classical or electric) & soundtrack
• Oog (1995), for cello & soundtrack
• Double (1997), for violin & piano
• Quadrivial (1997), for flute, violin, cello & prepared piano
• Solo (1997), for percussion solo
• Wake (1997), for percussion duo
• Caprce (1999), for violin solo
• Just Before (1999), for piano & soundtrack
• Memo (2003), for violin & portable cassette recorder
• Transit (2009), for piano & film
• Rekindle (2009), for flute & soundtrack

Dance & Film

• now [in fragments] (1995), for soprano, clarinet, cello & soundtrack
  • ballet, commissioned by the Richard Alston Dance Company in collaboration with Ben Wright
• Staring at the Space (1995-96), for chamber orchestra
  • 70 minute theatre/dance work, commissioned by the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and the Östgöta Dance Company
• Faust (1998), for ensemble & soundtrack
  • a large-scale (90 minute) dance work, commissioned by the New National Theatre Tokyo, choreographed by Kazuko Hirabayashi
• The New Math(s) (2000), for soprano, traverso, marimba, violin & soundtrack
  • Co-commissioned score with Louis Andriessen for a short film directed by Hal Hartley, for the BBC and NPS
• Solitaire (2003), for violin & soundtrack
  • ballet, commissioned by the Het Nationaal Ballet, Den Bosch

Other

• Writing to Vermeer (1999), opera by Louis Andriessen and Peter Greenaway, with the thirteen electronic music inserts (which accompany a corresponding film projection) composed by van der Aa.

References

• Reeder, Jonathan (September, 2007). "Michel van der Aa". Boosey & Hawkes. http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main.asp?composerid=18092&ttype=BIOGRAPHY&ttitle=Biography. Retrieved 4 February 2008. 

1. ^ http://www.intermusica.co.uk/vanderaa#Zela Law
2. ^ http://www.vanderaa.net/biography/
3. ^ http://vanderaa.net/RCOresidency

External links

• Michel van der Aa — Official website
• Michel van der Aa — Boosey & Hakwes
• Michel van der Aa — Twitter
• Michel van der Aa — Facebook
• Michel van der Aa — Intermusica
• (French) A biography of Michel van der Aa, from IRCAM's website.

Persondata
Name	Aa, Michel van der
Alternative names
Short description	Dutch composer
Date of birth	March 10, 1970
Place of birth	Oss, Netherlands
Date of death
Place of death