MERLIJN TWAALFHOVEN

Merlijn Twaalfhoven

For Merlijn Twaalfhoven, music is part of a total experience for all the senses. He draws his inspiration from non-Western music and the beauty of sounds in nature. Audience participation is a significant factor in his multidiscipline music events, compositions and concerts. His pieces are often written for large groups ...
Full biography

Instruments

altviool, componist

Mentioned in the biography of

2003   Orkest de Volharding

Biography Merlijn Twaalfhoven

For Merlijn Twaalfhoven, music is part of a total experience for all the senses. He draws his inspiration from non-Western music and the beauty of sounds in nature. Audience participation is a significant factor in his multidiscipline music events, compositions and concerts. His pieces are often written for large groups of musicians. “What the audience experiences from what you make, that is art. As an artist, you must always ask yourself, What am I actually communicating?” he said in 2008 in De Volkskrant. Twaalfhoven is a composer and cultural entrepreneur, and with his 'La Vie sur Terre' foundation, he organizes large-scale music projects at special locations, such as a pop temple, the occupied Palestinian territory, or a Slovakian gypsy ghetto. With many of his later projects, he seeks areas where social conflict dominates daily life, and he hopes through music to chip at the walls between people and build bridges between them.

1990 - 1997

Twaalfhoven is a preparatory student at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and the Amsterdam Conservatory, studying the viola with Gisella Bergman and Marjolein Dispa. He continues his studies with Esther Apituley and attends ethnomusicology classes at Amsterdam University. In 1995, he studies art history at Leiden University and completes the foundation course. He then begins studying composition with Daan Manneke at the Amsterdam Conservatory.

Daan Manneke Esther Apituley

1999 - 2000

With 'Onrust in roest' [Unrest in rust], Twaalfhoven undertakes one of his first location projects in the dunes near the Hoogovens steel manufacturer in Wijk aan Zee. He receives the NOG Stimulus Prize for Young Composers for 'Gush' (2000), for orchestra.

2001

Merlijn Twaalfhoven completes the propedeutic year as a composition student of Daan Manneke at the Amsterdam Conservatory. He establishes the 'La Vie sur Terre' foundation and spends a month in Hirado, Japan, which leads to a project for 100 musicians. The total event 'La vie urbaine' takes place in Groningen, Tilburg and the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam.

2002

The first edition of the total event 'La Nuit n’est pas un Chocolat' takes place in the pop temple Paradiso in Amsterdam. In subsequent years, editions of 'La Nuit' follow in Utrecht, Prague, Bratislava,Maribor, Enschede, and elsewhere. The orchestral piece 'If you reveal your secrets to the wind' (2002) wins second prize at the KBC Aquarius Composition Competition in Brussels and the Jur Naessens Music Prize.

2003

Twaalfhoven graduates at the Amsterdam Conservatory (composition, main phase). A collaborative project with Orkest de Volharding leads to three multidiscipline events at Korzo Theatre in The Hague under the collective title 'Soirées Unextracted'. The composition 'If you reveal your secrets to the wind' (2002) receives honourable mention in the young composers category at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers and the Public’s Prize and Jury Prize at the Dutch Music Days.

Orkest de Volharding

2004

Twaalfhoven begins as a pop art lecturer at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem.

2005

Project 'Kursk', in a decommissioned Russian submarine, is premiered during the Over ’t IJ Festival in Amsterdam. The location project 'Long Distance Call' takes place in Cyprus by the Green Line, the United Nations buffer zone.

2006

Tilburg Concert Hall makes Twaalfhoven its artist-in-residence for three projects. He also makes “community art” for a year in the city of Zaanstad ('’n Zaanse Droom'– A Zaan Dream).

2008

The large-scale music events 'Symphony for all' and 'Carried by the Wind' take place, respectively, in Jordan and the Palestinian territory. His lectureship at the ArtEZ Institute ends and Twaalfhoven publishes his book 'Kunst in de Wereld' [Art in the World].

2009

The music event 'Carried by the Wind' (2008) receives the Movision Foreign Prize of the Dutch Art and Culture in my Neighbourhood festival.

2010

In October, Twaalfhoven is named city composer of Haarlemmermeer. For the inauguration of a new culture building in Hoofddorp, he works with residents on the project for 1,000 voices 'Stem van Haarlemmermeer' [Voice of Haarlemmermeer].

2011

During the Rotterdam Opera Days in May, an expanded version of 'The Air We Breathe' is performed at the Masssilo in Rotterdam. Professional singers from various types of music work with the audience.

Photos Merlijn Twaalfhoven

Audio/Video Merlijn Twaalfhoven