For Michel van der Aa (Netherlands, 1970), music is more than organized sound or a structuring of notes. His music has expressive power, combining sounds and scenic images in a play of changing perspectives. Van der Aa's recent stage works show a successful involvement as a film and stage director as well as composer.
Having completed his training as a recording engineer at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Michel van der Aa studied composition with Diderik Wagenaar, Gilius van Bergeijk and Louis Andriessen.
In 2002 Van der Aa completed a program in film directing at the New York Film Academy. In 2007 he participated in the Lincoln Center Theater Director's Lab, an intensive course in stage direction. He was responsible for the stage direction as well as the conception and creation of the film segments in the operas One and After Life. His film directing credits include the short film Passage as well as the television production of One for the Dutch national broadcasting company NPS.
Van der Aa’s music has been performed by ensembles and orchestras worldwide, including the ASKO/Schoenberg Ensemble, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, De Nederlandse Opera, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Seattle Chamber Players, New National Theatre Tokyo, musikFabrik, Continuum Ensemble Toronto, SWR orchestra Baden-Baden & Freiburg, Netherlands Radio Orchestras, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra Sweden, and the Helsinki Avanti Ensemble.
Van der Aa has been a featured artist at the Perth Tura New Music Festival and Holland Festival. He is a regular guest of the Berliner Festspiele, Venice Biennale, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Gaudeamus Music Week, Huddersfield Festival, Concertgebouw Saturday Matinee and Autumn in Warsaw. Additionally his compositions have been performed at the Festival d’Automne á Paris, LA Philharmonic New Music Series, Lucerne Festival, Music Biennale Zagreb, Moscow Music Week, Oslo Ultima Festival, and Budapest Autumn Festival.
In 1999 Michel Van der Aa was the first Dutch composer to win the prestigious International Gaudeamus Prize. Van der Aa won the 2004 Matthijs Vermeulen prize for One. The Ernst von Siemens Foundation awarded him a Siemens Composers Grant in 2005. Also in 2005 Michel van der Aa received the Charlotte Köhler Prize for his directing work and the interdisciplinary character of his oeuvre. In 2006 Michel van der Aa was awarded the Paul Hindemith Prize.
Michel van der Aa is published by Boosey & Hawkes
Official website: www.doubleA.net
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