Hans Koolmees

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Π΍

Come and dance with me in Ireland

Aed Mac AinmirechHans Koolmees

Blues for Paul: for piano, 2004

Caprice: for violin solo, 2000

Deeldersongs, for bariton and piano or countertenor

and electric guitar, 2014-2016

De Toren van Babel: for 6 singers, choir and baroque

orchestra, 1998

De Waterman: opera, 2009

Nar: for basset horn and percussion, 2002

Posjlost: for choir and instrumental ensemble, 1991

(rev. 1995)

Rozen: for soprano, glockenspiel, string quartet and

tape, 2000

Ten Oorlog!: for mezzo-soprano and organ, 2000

Tentet: for ensemble, 1991 (rev. 1995)

Terra: for 4 singers, mixed choir and 5 wind

instruments, 2004

The Chromatic City (Rotterdam Concerto IV): for

recorder, pan flute and chamber orchestra, 2015

Undulating Motion Between Intuition and Self-Control

“Man with woman walked through meadow, said: so neatly

mowed this land is.

Woman however, contrariwise, spoke: mowed is it not, but

trimmed, man most

adamant; now said man that mowed and woman said trimmed.

Man, incensed, threw woman in water.

Now being in water and unable to speak, thrust she her hand

above water, making

gesture with fingers of scissors, indicating that it was trimmed.”

Grote Spiegel (Velicoe Zercale), Russia 1766

Selected compositionsof Hans Koolmees

Education

At the conservatory of Rotterdam, Koolmees studied composition

with Klaas de Vries, organ with Jet Dubbeldam, arranging and

conducting with Bernard van Beurden, and electronic music with

Gilius van Bergeijk.

Career

Koolmees is of the Rotterdam School of composition. “The

composition department here is strongly influenced by Klaas de

Vries and Peter-Jan Wagemans, for whom intuition is the guiding

thread in composition.”

He works as a composer, as a teacher in composition and

instrumentation, and as an organist.

Between 2003 and 2008, Hans was the artistic director of the

DoelenEnsemble. In 2009 and 2010 he was artist-in-residence in

the Van Doesburghuis in Meudon, near Paris.

Compositions

Koolmees tries to strike a balance between detachment and

sentiment – something he admires in the music of Igor Stravinsky

– and leaves room in his work for irony, for the grotesque and the

over the top. Regarding the content of his music, he says:

“Ultimately, the sole subject of music is time – not human misery

or some such thing. The passage of time, all human misery lies

concealed in it.”

His compositions have been performed by Oliver Knussen, Jurjen

Hempel, Daniel Reuss, Ellen Corver, Lucas Vis, The Hague

Philharmonic Orchestra, The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra,

Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Ballet

Orchestra, Cappella Amsterdam, Brisk, the Schönberg Ensemble,

the DoelenEnsemble and Calefax reed quintet.

Theater Lantaren/Venster organized a four-day festival of

Koolmees’ music in 1999. Along with earlier pieces came the

premieres of three new works, including ‘De Toren van

Babel’ [The Tower of Babel, 1998].

In 2005, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra performed ‘As

Time goes by’ (2004), a symphonic scherzo which takes as its

motto a short poem by Jules Deelder: “Alles blijft/ Alles gaat

voorbij/ Alles blijft voorbijgaan” [Everything continues/

Everything passes by/ Everything continues passing by].

Koolmees says of the piece: “My initial idea was that I wanted to

make the passage of time palpable, which the poem does with

great concision. There is linear time, in which things develop, and

there is circular time, which is based on repetition. I attempt to

unite the two in this piece.”

On 16 April 2009, the first performance of Koolmees’ opera ‘De

Waterman’ took place in Dordrecht.

Awards His composition ‘Cantate’ for large orchestra was awarded the

first prize of the composer’s composition organized by The Hague

Philharmonic Orchestra on the occasion of its ninetieth

anniversary in 1994.

Hans Koolmeeswas born on October 27, 1959, in Abcoude (The Netherlands).

Photo Hans Koolmees by Joce van der Feesten