The Trees of Paradise
January 24th, 2013 / In 1945 a jar with ancient manuscripts was found in Egypt. These manuscripts came to be known as the Nag Hammadi Scriptures, and contained Gnostic texts that had been forbidden by bishop Athanasius in 367 AD. The Gnostic views on the biblical creation myths are wildly different from those presently found in the Bible. The Trees of Paradise, for 3 singers, choir and orchestra follows the Gnostic story of the creation of the world, Adam and Eve, and the eating of the forbidden fruit - where the usual suspects are in different roles altogether, good and evil are reversed and a shocking turn of events take place.
The Trees of Paradise was commissioned by and premiered in the Zaterdagmatinee, on February 2, 2013.
DAZED
November 4th, 2011 / A stressed-out love triangle. One man and two women live their lives on autopilot. One indulges in sex, the others fall prey to compulsiveness or seek solace in a daily routine of progressively more sleeping pills. They are even more on edge when a fatal incident occurs. Ideal ingredients for an explosive bout of musical theatre.
Dazed is performed by VocaalLab and co-produced by the November Music Festival.
Out on CD: Orchestral Works
December 5th, 2010 / The Etcetera label released the CD Giel Vleggaar - Orchestral Works. The CD includes the works Piano Concerto, Ayre of Solace and Dead as Disco. All pieces are performed by the Radio Kamer Filharmonie, conducted by Otto Tausk and Pascal Rophé. The Piano Concerto features the amazing pianist Ralph van Raat. The CD is available through various online retailers (including the iTunes Music Store) and specialty CD stores.
Buy Orchestral Works on iTunes
NSO premieres and tours with Fünf
February 7th, 2010 / A video interview with Anthony Fiumara about Fünf, my fifth, not symphony but orchestral work. The Netherlands Student Orchestra will be touring with this piece in February 2010 all around Holland, as well as playing a few concerts in Instanbul, Turkey. Here's some info on the work process and inspiration for the piece:
Learn more about Fünf
Aiming for Ecstasy selected for ISCM World New Music Days 2010
January 27th, 2010 / My electric guitar piece Aiming for Ecstasy has been selected for the ISCM World New Music Days in Sidney, Australia. It will be performed by Electric Trio on Saturday, May 1st at the Campbelltown Arts Centre.
From the programme notes:
Aiming for Ecstasy draws from a wide array of influences. Whether it is a chord progression from an unreleased Prince-song called 'Wonderful Ass', an early Renaissance fauxbourdon harmonisation technique, or a palindromic number series (543212345), this piece presents a distinct sound world that emphasises a recurrent theme in my work: bringing together seemingly unrelated musical scenarios. Repetition also plays a central role in Aiming for Ecstasy: getting stuck in repeating patterns and trying to break free through development, but always being controlled by the invisible pull of the palindrome. Allowed to wander off every once in a while into a alien fauxbourdon landscape, the guitarist finally submits to the iron rule of the number with full abandon, aiming to find a sense of bliss in a highly regulated environment.
Learn more about Aiming for Ecstasy
Ayre of Solace Première
June 15th, 2009 / On Friday, June 19th, the Radio Kamer Filharmonie will première my new orchestra piece Ayre of Solace, conducted by Pascal Rophé.
The piece is loosely based on though very much inspired by the music of John Dowland. I was asked initially by the NPS to orchestrate some songs of Dowland and one of the Lachrimaes, but I thought it would be a more rewarding experience to make something new. I was imagining what it would be like to crawl into Dowland's head, and compose from his language with the tools we have available today. As the piece took shape, I found myself somewhat intimidated by the greatness of Dowland - he does something profound and beautiful that I can't put my finger on. I decided to step away from him and write my own reflection on his music, on Melancholy, and leave Dowland where he deserves to be - untouchable and on a freshly polished pedestal.
The performance will take place in the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam and is part of the Holland Festival.
Learn more about John Dowland
In Transit
April 29th, 2009 /
The Amstel Saxophone Quartet and Duo Vertigo premiered In Transit on April 12th, 2009, in Galerie Marzee in Nijmegen. A bit of a late premiere, since the work was written in 2007, but it proved difficult to get the two groups together until this year. They are amazing together though, as you can see!
Learn more about In Transit
Jury Duty
April 21st, 2009 / Today a big box filled with scores was delivered to my house: I'm on jury duty. After having won a prize in the Young Composers Project 2002 of Holland Symfonia, I was invited this year to take place in the jury for this year's edition. I'm a first timer when it comes to selecting and judging a big pile of other people's scores. It's a somewhat daunting task, and I'm in awe of the amount of time all these young composers must have put into sending in their scores in time for the deadline. There's lots to read and weigh, and no doubt there are many interesting discussions to come with my fellow jury members on who to select and who to let down...
Learn more about Holland Symfonia
Rave Reviews for Piano Concerto
April 1st, 2008 / On Saturday, January 31st the Piano Concerto was premiered in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, by soloist Ralph van Raat with the Radio Kamer Filharmonia conducted by Otto Tausk. Audience response was overwhelming; so where the rave reviews in Trouw, De Volkskrant, De Telegraaf and NRC Handelsblad.
Learn more about Piano Concerto
November Music
November 1st, 2007 / The last edition of the November Music Festival featured a program of Giel Vleggaar's music on Sunday the 18th of November, in the Verkadefabriek in Den Bosch. Esteemed performers such as Frank Wingold, Nederlands Vocaal Laboratorium and the Nieuw Ensemble performed exciting and haunting pieces, including the world premières of Drowning for 5 singers, and Atomic UFO Saves the Day for bass guitar and ensemble. The program also featured video animation by British illustrator Nikalas Catlow.
Link to the November Music Website
Selected for 2007 International Rostrum of Composers
June 11th, 2007 / Giel Vleggaar's work Appalachia has been placed on the Recommended Works List of the International Music Council. The 54th International Rostrum of Composers (IRC) took place at the Maison de la Radio in Paris, June 5 to 9, 2007, organised by the International Music Council in cooperation with Radio France and with the financial support of UNESCO. Giel Vleggaar joins the ranks of the 2007 International Rostrum of Composers with the same piece that won the Henriette Bosmans Prize earlier this year.
More information at http://www.unesco.org/imc/.
Learn more about Appalachia
Giel Vleggaar wins Henriette Bosmans Prijs 2007 for Appalachia
February 17th, 2007 / Giel Vleggaar's bluegrass exploration Appalachia won the Henriette Bosmansprijs 2007. Ensemble Insomnio performed the work in a concert on the 16th of February with soloist Wiek Hijmans. Appalachia was commissioned by the Nieuw Ensemble in 2004, and was also well-received at the Gaudemus Music Week Festival that same year. Some quotes from the press after the première in 2004:
"Giel Vleggaar... mixed American bluegrass-music with modern compositional techniques and bebop into an energetic, at times explosive piece"
(Winand van de Kamp, Haagsche Courant)
"The soloist in this piece is an escaped bluegrass guitarist, steel strings and all. Typical guitaristic licks and riffs seep through into the ensemble texture, or serve to accompany long melodic lines in an atmosphere that moves back and forth between repetitive stillness and avant-garde rodeo"
(Jochem Valkenburg, NRC Handelsblad)
"Virtuosic, remarkably supple sounding music that showcases great inventiveness"
(Gerard van der Leeuw, ArtEz)
Learn more about Appalachia
Dead as Disco
January 7th, 2007 / On February 16th, 2007 the Radio Kamer Filharmonie premièred Giel Vleggaar's new orchestra piece 'Dead as Disco'. The performance was part of the 'Jong Oranje' project, where 5 young composers were asked to write a piece for orchestra and present them in a dedicated evening program during the Nederlandse Muziekdagen. The concert also featured pieces by Ned McGowan, Joey Roukens, Lars Skoglund and Daan Verlaan. The orchestra was conducted by Otto Tausk.
Dead as Disco is an exhubarant piece, a loving treatment of disco that describes the transformation of the genre as it slowly went extinct during the early 1980's. Using a sweeping mix of the musical languages of disco and contemporary music, Dead as Disco foreshadows the doom and gloom of the nineteen-eighties glimpsed at the end of the upbeat seventies.
Press quote:
"Giel Vleggaar... set the hall on fire. Dead as Disco moves back and forth with virtuosity between hopscotch Stravinsky, Barry White-esque soul and the tight rhythmic feel of dance music. A true find is the ending, where music and lighting fade out in one fluent motion. "
(Guido van Oorschot, De Volkskrant, February 19th 2007)
Learn more about Dead as Disco
Come Here Often? Released on CD
July 2nd, 2006 / Duo Vertigo released their debut CD Vertigo One on Karnatic Lab Records, featuring among others the percussion duo + tape piece 'Come Here Often?' by Giel Vleggaar.
Over the past few years, award-winning Duo Vertigo has become famous for its riveting and energetic performances, inspiring the creation of imaginative and innovative new works by composers from all over the world. This disc of world premiere recordings offers a selection of the strongest, strangest and most gripping of those pieces, including urban tunes, exotic sound fields, labyrinthine toccatas and sexy pick-up lines...
Vertigo One can be ordered from the Karnatic Lab Records website: www.karnaticlabrecords.com
Learn more about Come Here Often?
 |
The Trees of Paradise was commissioned by and premiered in the Zaterdagmatinee, on February 2, 2013.
DAZED
 |
Dazed is performed by VocaalLab and co-produced by the November Music Festival.
Out on CD: Orchestral Works
 |
Buy Orchestral Works on iTunes
NSO premieres and tours with Fünf
|
Learn more about Fünf
Aiming for Ecstasy selected for ISCM World New Music Days 2010
 |
From the programme notes:
Aiming for Ecstasy draws from a wide array of influences. Whether it is a chord progression from an unreleased Prince-song called 'Wonderful Ass', an early Renaissance fauxbourdon harmonisation technique, or a palindromic number series (543212345), this piece presents a distinct sound world that emphasises a recurrent theme in my work: bringing together seemingly unrelated musical scenarios. Repetition also plays a central role in Aiming for Ecstasy: getting stuck in repeating patterns and trying to break free through development, but always being controlled by the invisible pull of the palindrome. Allowed to wander off every once in a while into a alien fauxbourdon landscape, the guitarist finally submits to the iron rule of the number with full abandon, aiming to find a sense of bliss in a highly regulated environment.
Learn more about Aiming for Ecstasy
Ayre of Solace Première
 |
The piece is loosely based on though very much inspired by the music of John Dowland. I was asked initially by the NPS to orchestrate some songs of Dowland and one of the Lachrimaes, but I thought it would be a more rewarding experience to make something new. I was imagining what it would be like to crawl into Dowland's head, and compose from his language with the tools we have available today. As the piece took shape, I found myself somewhat intimidated by the greatness of Dowland - he does something profound and beautiful that I can't put my finger on. I decided to step away from him and write my own reflection on his music, on Melancholy, and leave Dowland where he deserves to be - untouchable and on a freshly polished pedestal.
The performance will take place in the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam and is part of the Holland Festival.
Learn more about John Dowland
In Transit
|
The Amstel Saxophone Quartet and Duo Vertigo premiered In Transit on April 12th, 2009, in Galerie Marzee in Nijmegen. A bit of a late premiere, since the work was written in 2007, but it proved difficult to get the two groups together until this year. They are amazing together though, as you can see!
Learn more about In Transit
Jury Duty
 |
Learn more about Holland Symfonia
Rave Reviews for Piano Concerto
 |
Learn more about Piano Concerto
November Music
 |
Link to the November Music Website
Selected for 2007 International Rostrum of Composers
 |
More information at http://www.unesco.org/imc/.
Learn more about Appalachia
Giel Vleggaar wins Henriette Bosmans Prijs 2007 for Appalachia
 |
| Ensemble Insomnio |
"Giel Vleggaar... mixed American bluegrass-music with modern compositional techniques and bebop into an energetic, at times explosive piece"
(Winand van de Kamp, Haagsche Courant)
"The soloist in this piece is an escaped bluegrass guitarist, steel strings and all. Typical guitaristic licks and riffs seep through into the ensemble texture, or serve to accompany long melodic lines in an atmosphere that moves back and forth between repetitive stillness and avant-garde rodeo"
(Jochem Valkenburg, NRC Handelsblad)
"Virtuosic, remarkably supple sounding music that showcases great inventiveness"
(Gerard van der Leeuw, ArtEz)
Learn more about Appalachia
Dead as Disco
 |
Dead as Disco is an exhubarant piece, a loving treatment of disco that describes the transformation of the genre as it slowly went extinct during the early 1980's. Using a sweeping mix of the musical languages of disco and contemporary music, Dead as Disco foreshadows the doom and gloom of the nineteen-eighties glimpsed at the end of the upbeat seventies.
Press quote:
"Giel Vleggaar... set the hall on fire. Dead as Disco moves back and forth with virtuosity between hopscotch Stravinsky, Barry White-esque soul and the tight rhythmic feel of dance music. A true find is the ending, where music and lighting fade out in one fluent motion. "
(Guido van Oorschot, De Volkskrant, February 19th 2007)
Learn more about Dead as Disco
Come Here Often? Released on CD
 |
Over the past few years, award-winning Duo Vertigo has become famous for its riveting and energetic performances, inspiring the creation of imaginative and innovative new works by composers from all over the world. This disc of world premiere recordings offers a selection of the strongest, strangest and most gripping of those pieces, including urban tunes, exotic sound fields, labyrinthine toccatas and sexy pick-up lines...
Vertigo One can be ordered from the Karnatic Lab Records website: www.karnaticlabrecords.com
Learn more about Come Here Often?