News

VE-Dances on Dutch Touch

April 2008 | On June 22, 2008 Gertie Bruin presents his solo CD Dutch Touch with solo works for accordion by Dutch composers.

Charlie Charlie on stage

Barbara Kozelj as Margaretha Marketing
(Photo: Hans Hijmering)November 2007 | After an intense period of collaborating work with visual artist and director Bart Visser and with librettist Lex Bohlmeijer, Charlie Charlie premiered successfully during November Music in De Verkadefabriek in Den Bosch on November 16.

Charlie Charlie into production

May 2007 | Charlie Charlie, a documentary in music about the dream behind the zeppelin Hindenburg is leaving the planning phase and enters the production stage. Based on original archive materials, Charlie Charlie will be first performed as part of November Music in Den Bosch and then tour the Netherlands.

Squawk Box dedicated to the Amstel Quartet

Mar 2007 | I added Squawk Box, my new composition dedicated to the Amstel Quartet. Squawk Box has a soundtrack added to it, based on aviation recordings. It is commissioned by the Fund for the Creation of Music for the Amstel Quartet and will be premiered in New York.

Commission for 'De Volharding'

Dec 2006 | The Fund for the Creation of Music (FST) commissioned me to compose a new work for the Volharding.

Windy performance Square Prayer

Oct 2006 | The first performance of Square Prayer in the Netherlands took place under bad weather conditions in the town of Kampen. Read on my blog why it was an enjoyable happening nevertheless.

Commission for the Amstel Quartet

May 2006 | The Fund for the Creation of Music (FST) commissioned me to compose a new work for the Amstel Quartet.

Square Prayer for Frans Haagen

May 2006 | I added Square Prayer, a new composition for carillon and soundtrack. Square Prayer is commisioned by the Fund for the Creation of Music for Frans Haagen and will be premiered on 17 July in Gdansk, Poland.

Hard Love for Wiek Heijmans

Feb 2006 | I finished composing Hard Love and added it to my website. Hard Love is a new composition for electric guitar and soundtrack based on Ovid's Metamorphoses. I wrote it for Wiek Heijmans.

Upcoming events

March 5, 2009 (worldpremiere)
New Work
Volharding

Commissioned by the NFPK
Muziekgebouw aan het IJ
Amsterdam

Who is afraid of tonal music

Many people believe that contemporary music is about putting as many dissonances in a unit of time as possible. Some contemporary composers think that contemporary tonal music is lazy composing.

They are wrong!

Good contemporary classical music is not about consonance or dissonance but about reaching out and getting a message or feeling across to your public. It has a link to its own time and to society as a whole. And it has the guts to be linked to tradition, to be sentimental, to be consonant and dissonant with meaning and be intellectual at the same time.