Aug 28, 2011

Time
Aug 28, 2011, 11 am

Location: Auditorium, Temporary Stedelijk 2
Entrance: Free with a valid Museum ticket 
Reservations: Not required

One of the most important composers in the Netherlands, Theo Loevendie has created music heard and acclaimed all around the world.  On August 28, during the Uitmarkt 2011, Loevendie appears for a very special concert at the Stedelijk Museum, doing what he loves best – improvising on the soprano saxophone. Loevendie performs with Oene van Geel, Mark Tuinstra, and Niti Ranjan Biswas of the Nordanians.


More information about the performers:

Theo Loevendie (b. 1930, Amsterdam) had already built up a great international reputation as a jazz musician when he entered the Amsterdam Conservatory to study the clarinet and composition. As a result of his jazz experience, his works are known to leave space for improvisers to develop their own creativity. The influence of music from the Middle East is also a characteristic of Loevendie’s compositions. Since 1970, Loevendie has been a professor of composition at the conservatories of Rotterdam, The Hague, and Amsterdam, successively, and his music is performed all over the world. He has been a main composer at many festivals, travelled internationally to give master classes, and won many prizes, including two Edisons. He was the first composer to receive the prestigious 3M Award and shared the American Koussevitzky Award with Pierre Boulez. The premiere of his work Venus & Adonis led to the creation of the Nieuw Ensemble in 1980, and he founded the Ziggurat ensemble in 2004. Loevendie has written six operas, the last of which, the mini-opera The Liberator, about the life of American abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, premiered in Boston in 2009. That same season, the premiere of Loevendie’s version of a text by Kees van Kooten, De Nachtegaal, was a worldwide success and a CD and DVD were made of this work. CDs of this version are being prepared in German, English, and Spanish. In March 2009, the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble premiered the work Fatum for soloists, choir, and wind instruments as a counterpart to Mozart’s Requiem.  At the moment, Loevendie is working on an opera about the philosopher Spinoza.

The Nordanians are comprised of viola player Oene van Geel, guitarist Mark Tuinstra, and virtuoso tabla player Niti Ranjan Biswas, whose combined creative musical forces have resulted in a dangerously contagious and explosive mixture of violent improvisation. Their musical spectrum ranges from traditional Indian ragas via jazz to intimate chamber music. These idiosyncratic gentlemen also work with ingredients such as funk, soundscapes, and Brazilian music. But above all, the fun of playing remains the priority. For more information, see www.nordanians.com.