JACOB TER VELDHUIS

Pseudonyms

JacobTV

Jacob ter Veldhuis

“I pepper my music with sugar” – a memorable comment by the Dutch composer Jacob ter Veldhuis. His music leaves plenty of room for tonality and combines post-minimalist, neo-Romantic, richly orchestrated avant-garde jazz, and pop elements. “While he was working on integrating rock, jazz and pop culture into his music ...
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Mentioned in the biography of

1968   Luctor Ponse
1995   Kees Wieringa
2004   Monica Germino
2005   Ruysdael Kwartet
2012   Dick de Graaf
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Biography Jacob ter Veldhuis

“I pepper my music with sugar” – a memorable comment by the Dutch composer Jacob ter Veldhuis. His music leaves plenty of room for tonality and combines post-minimalist, neo-Romantic, richly orchestrated avant-garde jazz, and pop elements. “While he was working on integrating rock, jazz and pop culture into his music on the one hand, he was turning away from highbrow modernism on the other,” according to the international webzine Sequenza 21. In addition to many concertos and works for orchestra, in the mid-1990s he also began making 'boombox' works. Influenced by the composers Steve Reich and Scott Johnson, he began combining spoken text fragments (on tape or boombox) from the American media and cultural landscape live with music played by an instrumentalist or ensemble. These boombox pieces show an earthier, more realistic side of Ter Veldhuis, while in pieces such as 'Oratorio Paradiso´ (2001), he aims for a more utopian sound. Ter Veldhuis is at present one of the most frequently performed Dutch composers. He recently adopted a more easily pronounceable pseudonym, Jacob TV, and profiles himself as an “avant-pop composer”.

1951 - 1970

Jacob ter Veldhuis is born in Westerlee, Groningen, on November 14 and is raised in Winschoten. He plays in various rock bands, such as the Ro-d-ys with Harry Rijnbergen.

RO-D-YS

1971 - 1980

At the Groningen Conservatory, Jacob ter Veldhuis studies the flute, French horn, percussion, piano, and music education. Additionally, from 1973, he studies composition with Willem Frederik Bon and electronic music with Luctor Ponse. He works as a music librarian and music teacher. In 1980, he is awarded the Prize for Composition.

Luctor Ponse Willem Frederik Bon

1981 - 1983

The 'Symphony No. 1' for orchestra and percussion is premiered by the Northern Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andrzej Markowski. Two years later, it is performed at the Warschauer Herbst festival in Poland.

1984 - 1986

Ter Veldhuis devotes himself full-time to composition. Partially through his initiative, the 'Buskruitenconcerten' [Gunpowder Concerts] for new music are established in Groningen as a predecessor of the Prime foundation.

1992

Jacob ter Veldhuis is composer-in-residence at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse.

1994 - 1996

BVHaast releases a first CD with chamber music by Ter Veldhuis: 'Diverso il tempo'. Two years later, the CD 'Van grote en kleine vogels' [Of Large and Small Birds] is released.

1997 - 1998

'String Quartet No. 3, There Must Be Some Way out of Here', is nominated as the Dutch entry for the International Rostrum of Composers. With about 250 performances a year, Ter Veldhuis is one of the most frequently performed Dutch composers.

1999

The choreographer Hans van Manen makes the ballets 'Short Cut' and 'Two Gold Variations' on music by Ter Veldhuis: 'String Quartet No. 3' (1995) and 'Gold Rush Concerto' (1997). His composition 'Lipstick' (1998) is selected for the International Electroacoustic Music Contest in Bourges, France.

2001

A four-day “Jacob ter Veldhuis Festival” is set up in March by the Lantaren-Venster Theatre in Rotterdam. On September 12, the video oratorio 'Paradiso' (made in collaboration with the video artist Jaap Drupsteen), for soprano, tenor, sampler, women’s choir and orchestra is premiered.

Jaap Drupsteen

2002 - 2006

The film-maker Jan Willem Looze makes a documentary about Ter Veldhuis: 'So Heavenly It Hurts' (OJTV film + TV productions). The multimedia composition '... Now...' , for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, is premiered during the 2005 Holland Festival, and in 2006, Ter Veldhuis is the composer-in-residence of the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra.

2007

A three-day JacobTV Festival is held in May at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. A trio of CD box sets of his most important works is issued by Basta Music.

2010

On February 17, the multimedia show 'Cities Change the Songs of Birds' is premiered at the Frits Philips Music Centre in Eindhoven by the Jacob TV Band, after which the band tours the Netherlands.

2011

The video opera 'The News' (yet unfinished) is premiered on May 4 in Rome (Italy).

Photos Jacob ter Veldhuis

Audio/Video Jacob ter Veldhuis

Video Jacob ter Veldhuis