About

As a composer, I think the most important thing is that you keep asking yourself at any point in the compositional process: How can I take this to the next level? I think it’s always more valuable to strive for the highest ideal – whatever that may be – with imperfect execution, than to have a perfectly developed idea that’s boring. While you might be afraid to get lost in all the ideas and possibilities that you have, the answer lies not in limiting or restricting yourself, nor in striving towards an artificial idea of ‘unity’, ‘consistency’ or ‘balance’, but in having faith in your own skills and ideas and trusting that they will lead you to the right place. If you try to make your ideas sound with maximum speaking power, everything else will fall into place.

I was born in 1998 in Hengelo, near the border between the Netherlands and Germany. During my school years I played in various rock bands, as well as the local youth orchestra. Later I studied at the Conservatoire of Amsterdam with Willem Jeths, Wim Henderickx and Richard Ayres, before moving to Birmingham to study with Sean Clancy, Ed Bennett and Andrew Hamilton.

One time when I showed a piece of mine to a friend, he exclaimed: “I never expected you to make this!” This reaction stuck to me – from that point I decided to keep striving to hear those words again and again.

I like music. I like music that’s itself, and doesn’t pretend to be anything else. I like music that makes unexpected twists and turns in all kinds of directions. I like music that does whatever it wants. I like music that’s completely unashamed, and doesn’t care what anyone thinks of it. I like very very very very intense music and I like nice and peaceful music. I like music that’s happy and I like music that’s angry. I like melancholic music, and I like music that doesn’t really know how it’s feeling about the situation. Music, in general, I believe, is good.