nederlands · english
Willem Wander van Nieuwkerk, dutch composer

About…

Music

Most of my music has been published by Ascolta. Recently my work has also appeared at the Edition Tre Fontane in Münster, Germany. Most of my scores are available from Broekmans & van Poppel.
Besides a piano, pencil and eraser, I wouldn’t be able to do without Sibelius music notation software.

Upcoming

Latest Angelic piece for recorder quartet: Stamping Ground (for Angels), just out at Edition Tre Fontane and recorded even before that.

Catch (An Angel) for recorder quartet SAAT
Finally published by the webly irretrievable Ascolta Music Publishing: Catch (An Angel) for recorder quartet!

Kamermuziekfestival HoornMy piano trio was played in the Hoorn Chamber Music Festival by the beautifully Romantic Atlantic Trio of pianist Bas Verheijden.

festival-nederlandse-kamermuziek. The Festival of Dutch Chamber Music featured my Dance Capriccios in a concert programme with that same title…

Globe Records has just issued a cd with beautiful historical music from 17th century France and England Inspired by the Bells including one new work by me.

Musicians

Composing for the recorder would have been les fun without Saskia Coolen, Han Tol and Peter Holtslag, the former La Fontegara Amsterdam.

Other recorder players that stand out by sheer skill and dedication are the Ensemble Dreiklang Berlin, who recorded my music for the Hänssler Label. And of course Brisk Recorder Quartet Amsterdam, that is untiring in its creative programming.

A recent recording of Kadanza has been made by Scarabee.

“An ideal springboard for players, students, teachers, makers and researchers alike” is Nicolas S. Landers Recorder Homepage.

Young virtuoso pianist Bas Verheijden was involved in my recent project with the Bartók Trio, and he is now touring with my Fantasque for piano solo. He is represented by Effacta Concert Management.

A Little teaching & writing (and some thinking)

Of course I am happy to teach at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, an inspiring (though slightly messy) institution happily embedded in the wider Amsterdam School of the Arts.

Like most of my colleagues, I am a fairly dedicated member of the Dutch-Flemish Society for Music Theory. The Society’s journal, the Dutch Journal of Music Theory has grown to be a major platform for the exchange of what used be called ‘music criticism’ in those good old days that none of us has ever known - and never mind the technicalities now and then.

A small essay of mine on music and sonic art has been published by Damon. It (and its author) featured in a series of seminars on music philosophy by the Internationale School voor Wijsbegeerte(Internationale School of Philosophy) in Leusden, Holland, August 7 – 11 2006.

I am no philosopher (G*d no!), but Rob van Gerwen is, and a witty and socially dedicated one at that. Rob designed his own very interesting site as well as that of the Nederlands Genootschap voor Esthetica (the Dutch Society for Aesthetics).

A philosopher I feel particularly attracted to is Roger Scruton - even though I don’t share all of his opinions on Wagner, and even less those on popmusic.

Dutch-Indonesian

What makes a Dutch composer typically Dutch? In my case the main thing I can think of is being of Dutch-Indonesian descent — in point of fact the very thing that made me feel a stranger at first (and often still does). Uit Indië Geboren To find out more about ‘Indo’-people, their art and their roots, go to the site dedicated to Tjalie Robinson, who is one of the founding fathers of Indiness in Holland. The site is part of a site maintained by Wim Willems, Tjalie’s biographer and (co)author of several studies on Indonesian-Dutch subjects. A popular, very informative one is this one: Uit Indië geboren. Vier eeuwen familiegeschiedenis. Wim Willems,, Remco Raben e.a. (red.) Waanders, Zwolle 1997

Composers

I am glad to be able to count among my collegues composers Wim Henderickx and Martijn Hooning. An awesome Stravinsky specialist is my friend Andre Douw. You find quite a lot of my Dutch colleagues on sites like componisten-nederland and componisten-begint hier! A remarkable international site is the Classical Composers Database.