Douwe Eisenga

The Dutch composer Douwe Eisenga studied composition with Julius Ament and Wim Diriwachter at the Groningen Conservatory in the Netherlands. He has written pieces for, among others, the Xenakis Ensemble, the ensemble Super Librum and for pianist’s Gerard Bouwhuis and Marcel Worms. In 2001 Marcel Worms recorded Eisenga’s Growing worm, stabbing his back part slowly into the blues for his CD More new blues for piano. In the same year, Eisenga’s chamber-opera Kabaal (Row) received enthusiastic reviews in the Dutch press. Eisenga continued with Requiem 1953, a large-scale composition for choir and orchestra, performed in 2003 for the commemoration of the flood that struck The Netherlands in 1953. Later on that year, the première of the Piano Concerto (part 3) took place in Yokohama, Japan, performed by Gerard Bouwhuis and the Xenakis Ensemble. Spring 2004 witnessed the Dutch première of the complete piece at the Centre for New Music in Zeeland (NL). Like many composers of his generation, the music of Eisenga is rooted in pop music. He does not make any distinction between musical tearjerkers, twelve-tone techniques, baroque music or eastern-orientated cyclical structures. All these elements are used together in compositions that are both accessible and refreshing.