Rick van Veldhuizen:
[*1994] - a classical composer at heart, although nurtured on pop & dance music, literature & theatre. I’m either an optimist who embraces the worst in things or a very positive pessimist.

As a composer, I am fascinated by what music, especially in combination with text, is able to tell, and how it need not be bound to a single genre, but can encapsulate all the kinds of different influences going on inside of it. As such, my pieces are always above all expressions of vitality, of a thrust through life without compromise.

The darker side to this – derailment, contamination – has proved to be recurring motive in my body of work. In the darker corners lies so much wonder, curiosity , beauty and pain that it would be a pity not to seize every opportunity to explore them [conceptually, politically, aesthetically].

I love working with instruments as well as electronics, always trying to bring a slightly crooked edge to the materials I work with, and try to be as involved as possible with the musicians. The joy of making music is the constant communication with musicians, the audience and collaborators.

In 2016 I - subtly proudly - finished both a Bachelor of Music in composition at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where I studied with Joel Bons and Willem Jeths, with a 10/10 and a Bachelor of Arts in Dutch literature at Leiden University. I went on to study in Berlin, but this proved not to be the right destination for me, and I had to reconsider.

I took guest lessons with, among others, Carola Bauckholt and Olga Neuwirth, which I am greatly thankful for. During my year in Berlin I got wonderful guidance from Marc Sabat (colleagues and musicians: check out his website, which is a cornucopia of resources on Just Intonation) and Thomas Nicholson, both of whom enlightened me greatly about the myriad possibilities of intonation, which in turn allowed me the freedom to further develop my aesthetic.