Dante Boon (born 1973) is a Dutch

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

. A member of the Wandelweiser composers collective, he is perhaps best known as an interpreter of experimental piano music. His own music has been performed internationally to wide acclaim.

Biography

Dante Boon started his piano studies at age 14, with Willem Brons at the

Sweelinck Conservatorium The Conservatorium van Amsterdam (CvA) is a Dutch conservatoire of music located in Amsterdam. This school is the music division of the Amsterdam University of the Arts, the city's vocational university of arts. The Conservatorium van Amsterdam ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. He studied composition with

Diderik Wagenaar Diderik Wagenaar (born 10 May 1946 in Utrecht) is a Dutch composer and musical theorist. Life and work Wagenaar has lived and worked all his adult life in The Hague. Born to a musical family that includes Johan Wagenaar, he began playing piano at ...

at the

Royal Conservatory in The Hague The Royal Conservatoire ( nl, Koninklijk Conservatorium, KC) is a conservatoire in The Hague, providing higher education in music and dance. The conservatoire was founded by King William I in 1826, making it the oldest conservatoire in the Netherl ...

. At the age of 24, he joined the Dutch rock band The Scene as a keyboardist and

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

. A champion of experimental piano music and of

Wandelweiser The Wandelweiser Group is a collective for composers and performers of contemporary classical music. Inspired by the work of John Cage, the Wandelweiser Group writes experimental music, which is typically of a very quiet nature and often incorpora ...

in particular, Boon has premiered over 100 works, many of which written specifically for him. He has performed at such venues as Constellation Chicago, Spectrum, Studio Z, Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, the

ISCM The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music. The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) following the ...

Festival,

cafe OTO Cafe Oto is a venue for free jazz, experimental and free improvisation performances located in the Dalston district of London, United Kingdom. Founded in 2008 Cafe Oto (''sound'' or ''noise'' in Japanese) is located in the heart of Dalston and p ...

, dotolim, Ftarri Festival, Musica Sacra Maastricht, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, De Link, Paradiso, and regularly at Amsterdam's underground venue Zaal 100 and Klangraum in Düsseldorf. Boon has also been active as a concert organizer himself. He was one of the young composers who organized the Amsterdam concert series for new music ''Concerten Tot en Met'' between 1997 and 2004. He has also co-organized the series ''The Workshop/Maximum Clarity'' (with

James Fulkerson James Orville Fulkerson (born July 2, 1945, in Streator, Illinois) is an American composer, now living in the Netherlands, of mostly stage, orchestral, chamber, vocal, piano, Electroacoustic music, electroacoustic, and multimedia works. He is also a ...

) at Zaal 100, and since 2007 (with Stevko Busch) ''Pianolab Amsterdam'', a showcase for Amsterdam pianists and their guests, at the

Goethe-Institut The Goethe-Institut (, GI, en, Goethe Institute) is a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and ...

. In 2017, Boon organized the ''Amsterdam Wandelweiser Festival'', a four-day festival of

music. A second edition of the festival, again curated by Boon, was held at the Amsterdam venue Het Orgelpark in 2022. He has recorded music by composers such as Tom Johnson,

Philip Corner Philip Lionel Corner (born April 10, 1933; name sometimes given as Phil Corner) is an American composer, trombonist, alphornist, vocalist, pianist, music theorist, music educator, and visual artist. Biography After The High School of Music & Ar ...

Rozalie Hirs Rozalie Hirs (born 7 April 1965) is a Dutch composer of contemporary classical music and a poet. The principal concerns of her work are the adventure of listening, reading, and the imagination. Biography Rozalie Hirs studied piano and voice fro ...

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

Jürg Frey Jürg Frey (born 15 May 1953) is a Swiss composer and clarinettist. He is a member of the Wandelweiser Group. Biography Jürg Frey was born in 1953 in Aarau, Switzerland. He studied clarinet in Concervatoire de Musique de Genève, composition ...

Antoine Beuger Antoine Beuger (born 3 July 1955 in Oosterhout, Netherlands) is a Dutch composer, flautist, and music publisher. He is a founder of the Wandelweiser group. Biography Beuger studied composition from 1973 to 1978 with Ton de Leeuw at the Conservatori ...

, Jack Callahan, Samuel Vriezen,

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School ...

Richard Ayres Richard Ayres (born 29 October 1965, Cornwall) is a British composer and music teacher. Biography Born in Cornwall, England, Richard Ayres followed Morton Feldman's classes at the Darmstadt and Dartington summer schools. He studied composition, ...

and Michael Manion. With pianist-composer Samuel Vriezen, he recorded Tom Johnson's ''Symmetries'' for

piano four hands Piano four hands (french: À quatre mains, german: Zu vier Händen, Vierhändig, it, a quattro mani) is a type of piano duet involving two players playing the same piano simultaneously. A duet with the players playing separate instruments is ...

. In 2004, he premiered Johnson's ''Same or Different'', commissioned by VPRO Radio. Boon's compositions have been performed internationally, at such venues as

Museo Reina Sofía Museo may refer to: * Museo, 2018 Mexican drama heist film *Museo (Naples Metro) Museo is a station on line 1 of the Naples Metro. It was opened on 5 April 2001 as the eastern terminus of the section of the line between Vanvitelli and Museo. O ...

, Goethe-Institut Amsterdam, Kunstraum, Alte Jazz-Schmiede,

Old Stone House (Brooklyn) The Old Stone House is a house located in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. The Old Stone House is situated within the J. J. Byrne Playground, at Washington Park, on Third Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues. Gowanus ...

, Willow Place Auditorium, Orgelpark,

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

, V2 Institute for the Unstable Media,

Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (English language, English: "Music Building on the IJ") is the main concert hall for contemporary classical music on the IJ (Amsterdam), IJ in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The building opened in 2005 and is located above the IJt ...

, the Royal Academy of Dutch language and literature,

Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (also known by the acronym HCMF, stylised since 2006 as the lowercase hcmf//) is a new music festival held annually in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Since its foundation in 1978, it has featured ...

, The Wild Beast, Kultur & Kongresshaus Aarau,

UCSB The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

, and

REDCAT Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT) is an interdisciplinary contemporary arts center for innovative visual, performing and media arts in downtown Los Angeles, located inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex. Opened in November 2003 ...

. Performers of his music have included Ensemble Sisyphe, the Barton Workshop, the Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble, The Same Ensemble, Diana Plays Perception, de ereprijs, Nederlands Vocaal Laboratorium, Ensamble NEO, Antoine Beuger, Jürg Frey,

Michael Pisaro Michael Pisaro (born 1961 in Buffalo, New York) is a guitarist and composer. A member of the Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble, he has composed over 80 works for a great variety of instrumental combinations, including several pieces for variable ins ...

, Samuel Vriezen, Andrew McIntosh,

Taylan Susam Taylan Susam (born November 18, 1986) is a Turkish-Dutch composer of experimental music. He is a member of the Wandelweiser group, which has been described by ''The New Yorker'' as "an informal network of twenty or so experimental-minded compos ...

, Irene Kurka, Erik Carlson, Denis Sorokin,

Carson Cooman Carson P. Cooman (born June 12, 1982, Rochester, New York) is an American composer and organist. Cooman was first given piano lessons as a three-year-old and began studying organ under Bruce Klanderman at age ten. He graduated from Allendale Colu ...

, Luca Massaglia, Huw Morgan,

Nicolas Horvath Nicolas Horvath (born 1977, in Monaco) is a French pianist and electroacoustic composer. Education At 10, Nicolas Horvath was selected for a program initiated by Monaco's Princess Grace for children with musical predispositions. He receive ...

and Sergej Tchirkov. His scores are published by

Edition Wandelweiser The Wandelweiser Group is a collective for composers and performers of contemporary classical music. Inspired by the work of John Cage, the Wandelweiser Group writes experimental music, which is typically of a very quiet nature and often incor ...

. He is also known as a skillful

, having arranged music for The Scene and Wende, among others. Since 2016, he has taken up conducting. In November of that year, he conducted Ensemble Sisyphe in a program of music by André Cormier, Tom Johnson,

, and himself. He was a guest lecturer at the 13th ' hosted by the

University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university located in Vienna, established in 1817. With a student body of over three thousa ...

. A three-concert musical portrait of Dante Boon was presented in 2012 at Düsseldorf's Klangraum. In 2013, he was a special guest at

's ''Dog Star Orchestra'' festival of experimental music. In the same year, a retrospective of Boon's music was presented at the Los Angeles performance space ''the wulf.'' In 2016, Boon was featured as a composer and performer at

Quatuor Bozzini The Quatuor Bozzini is a string quartet that specializes in new and experimental music based in Montreal, Canada. Since 1999, Quatuor Bozzini has been an original voice in new, experimental and classical music. Their skew is radically contemporar ...

's Performer's Kitchen. He is married to Dutch actress Sytske van der Ster.

Musical works

John Eyles, writing for

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

, has described Boon's works as "exquisite throughout, without a single wasted note or gesture to be heard." His CD ''clarinet (and piano)'', which features clarinetist Jürg Frey, was recommended by ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''s Alex Ross and by Andy Hamilton in ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime film, crime drama Television show, television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The ...

''s Top 10 albums of contemporary music. Many of Boon's works are composed so as to give players room to discover their own way through the piece. His clarinet piece ''3x'', for example, consists of three staves of music containing pitches in three respective registers among which the clarinetist is free to move. In a program note, Michael Pisaro describes Boon's piano piece ''14x'' as follows:

Although the piece is quite slow, and is seemingly a simple series of sustained chords with an occasional beautiful melodic gesture, the technique employed is actually very challenging. No pedal is used, therefore, in order maintain the mostly 10-note sounds all fingers of both hands are employed, holding down keys for the whole piece. What at first seems nearly impossible reveals itself to be ingeniously composed to be just possible.

In a review of Boon's ''2 Delen (after Sam Sfirri)'', Paul Muller writes the following:

subtle work featuring electric guitar and voice. The guitar plays a slow ascending scale and at certain points the voice joins. The pure pitches made for some beautiful sounds and overtones. When the voice and guitar met in unison a new cycle would start.

His vocal piece ''Mirte'', a setting of the first three stanzas of Antoine Beuger's translation of the

Spiritual Canticle ''The Spiritual Canticle'' (), is one of the poetic works of the Spanish mystical poet Saint John of the Cross. Saint John of the Cross, a Carmelite friar and priest during the Counter-Reformation was arrested and jailed by the Calced Carmeli ...

John of the Cross John of the Cross, OCD ( es, link=no, Juan de la Cruz; la, Ioannes a Cruce; born Juan de Yepes y Álvarez; 24 June 1542 – 14 December 1591) was a Spanish Catholic priest, mystic, and a Carmelite friar of converso origin. He is a major fi ...

, has been described as an "inward psychological turn of a voice trying to sing to itself."

Boon as a pianist

Dante Boon has been called a "magnificent" and "idiosyncratic" pianist, known for his "delicate touch" and "calm control." His performances of

Komitas Soghomon Soghomonian, ordained and commonly known as Komitas, ( hy, Կոմիտաս; 22 October 1935) was an Armenian priest, musicologist, composer, arranger, singer, and choirmaster, who is considered the founder of the Armenian national scho ...

's piano music have been called "quieting" and "the highlight

f the concert F, or f, is the sixth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet#Let ...

. Jay Batzner, writing for ''Sequenza21'', describes Boon's recordings of Tom Johnson's music as "a delight to listen to."

called him a pianist with an "uncommon affinity for music that demands patience, steady hands, and a subtle touch."

National Sawdust National Sawdust is a nonprofit music producer and venue in Brooklyn, New York with the goal of providing "composers and musicians across genres... a setting where they are given unprecedented support and critical resources essential to create and ...

's Steve Smith listed one of Boon's 2018 solo recitals in New York in his top 10 of memorable musical events. Boon's debut album as a soloist, ''cage.frey.vriezen.feldman.ayres.johnson manion'', was met with critical acclaim. Anthony Fiumara, writing for ''

Trouw ''Trouw'' (; ) is a Dutch daily newspaper appearing in compact size. It was founded in 1943 as an orthodox Protestant underground newspaper during World War II. Since 2009, it has been owned by DPG Media (known as De Persgroep until 2019). ''Tr ...

'', notes that " is striking how self-evident ohn Cage's

pointillist Pointillism (, ) is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term "Pointillism" wa ...

''Etudes Australes'' sound under Boon's fingers," while characterizing Boon's playing as "murmurous lyricism." In a review for

NRC Handelsblad ''NRC'', previously called ''NRC Handelsblad'' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. It is generally accepted as a newspaper of record in the Netherlands. History ''NRC Handelsblad'' was first published on 1 ...

, Jochem Valkenburg notes Boon's "warm, shrouded tone" and, singling out his interpretation of

's ''Last Pieces'', calls it "objective yet affectionate…measured, pensive, yet vulnerable." Samuel Vriezen, writing in the liner notes to the album, similarly observes:

Two poles are important for Dante's playing. On the one hand he is drawn towards the musical discipline of the Cageian tradition and its concern with objectivity in sound. On the other hand, early Romanticism, particularly German song repertoire, is important to him. For many listeners, these poles may seem like opposites. For Dante, however, there is no contradiction. In his playing, precision of technique and conceptual clarity are expressions of a passionate engagement with sounds and their progression as melody.

His album with Jürg Frey, ''clarinet (and piano)'', containing Boon's own compositions, was similarly well received.

Selected works

Solo * ''14x'', piano (2007) * ''Uitdrijving'', voice and percussion (1 performer) (2009) * ''3x'', clarinet (2011) * ''Nov. (piano)'', piano (2011) * ''Years, numbers'', piano (2012) * ''Duo (2h)'', piano (2017) * ''Duo (accordion)'', accordion (2017) * ''Duo (guitar)'', (electric) guitar (2018) * ''Dean's piano'', piano (2018) * ''before traces'', piano (2019) * ''C#'', piano (2019) * ''You just don't argue'', piano (2019) * ''Gaza (bassoon)'', bassoon (2019) * ''For What'', piano (2020) * ''mansa / Van Daan'', piano and/or violin (2020) * ''Dreamings'', piano (2021) * ''Nov. (3)'', organ (2021) * ''(Huw)'', organ (2023) * ''Organ duos'', organ (2023) * ''Berceuse'', piano (2023) * ''Nov. (three) (3)'', piano (2023) * ''Gaza (piano)'', (toy) piano (2023) * ''Gaza (strings)'', guitar (2024) * ''Three times or more'', piano (2024) * ''Ispahaan'', piano (2024) * ''Genocide Joe'', piano (2024) * ''Voor Hans'', orgel (2024) Duo * ''sex (2)'', clarinet and cello (2006) * ''Het sneeuwt maar het sneeuwt niet meer'', 2 performers (2009) * ''Wolken/veld'', clarinet and piano (2011) * ''Lied (je slaapt)'', clarinet and (toy) piano (2012) * ''2 Delen (after Sam Sfirri)'', 2 instruments (2012) * ''2 Spelers (after Antoine Beuger)'', 2 instruments (2012) * ''Nov. (violin)'', violin and piano (2013) * ''3x (careful rests)'', guitar and piano (2014) * ''O'Hare'', clarinet and piano (2014) * ''Duo (chorals)'', clarinet and trombone (2017) * ''Duo (nocturne)'', guitar and cello (2017) * ''Duo (trombone)'', trombone and piano (2018) * ''Martha's Vineyard'', glockenspiel and piano (2018) * ''Gaza'', 2 instruments (2018) * ''Duo (stone harp)'', stone harp and melody instrument (2020) * ''Duo: table & books'', 2 performers (2020) * ''Couple'', piano four hands (2020) * ''20/21'', 2 instruments (2021) * ''Gone'', marimba and organ (2024) Songs * ''Ashbery (I Saw No Need)'', baritone (2003) * ''2x Robert Creeley'', soprano and piano (2009) * ''Mirte'', female voice and keyboard (1 performer) (2011) * ''the heart's size'', low (female) voice, piano (2011) * ''Om zachtjes in jezelf te zeggen'', voice (2012) * ''And/or'', voice (2012) * ''ruht nicht aus'', voice and instrument (2015) * ''Depression (Herbeck)'', (female) voice and piano (2017) * ''Duo (commonalities)'', 2 voices (2017) * ''Ta na sitàt'', voice and piano (2020) * ''Alone'', voice and piano (2021) * ''Drie jaar was ik ongeveer'', speaking voice and piano (2023) * ''Poem / Short Story'', voice (2023) * ''Dawn Song'', voice (2024) * ''They Called Me a Lioness'', voice and piano (1 performer) (2024) Ensemble * ''sex'', clarinet, violin, viola (2006) * ''Nov.'', string quartet (2006) * ''sex (3)'', 5 voices (2007) * ''12x'', 3 instruments (2011) * ''17x'', clarinet and 2 instruments (2011) * ''Avellino'', soprano and ensemble (2012) * ''St Paul'', ensemble (2014) * ''Bacherach'', voice, violin and piano (2014) * ''3x (Antoine)'', flute, piano and ensemble (2015) * ''Nov. (seven)'', ensemble (2016) * ''Duo 1-5'', ensemble (2017) * ''Die Palmen von Beth-El'', 4 performers (2018) * ''the prayer's end'', voice and ensemble (2015/2019) * ''Nov. (three)'', clarinet, double bass and piano (2020) * ''Nov. (koor)'', choir (SATB) (2021) * ''Night / I Wrote a Good Omelet'', three voices (STB) (2021) * ''String quartet'' (2021) * ''Sarabandes'', 2 voices, 2 organs and ensemble (2022) * ''εὖ γὰρ ἐγὼ'', choir (SATB) (2023) * ''Chants / Genocide Joe'', choir (2024)

Selected discography

* ''Marlene'',

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

(1998) (with The Scene) * ''1998'', Pressure (1999) (with

Thé Lau Matheus J. "Thé" Lau (17 July 1952 – 23 June 2015) was a Dutch musician and writer. Besides his solo career, he was the lead singer of the Dutch band ''The Scene''. He was born in Bergen, North Holland. Music career Lau played guitar in sev ...

) * ''Tom Johnson: Symmetries'', Karnatic Lab Records (2006) (with Samuel Vriezen) * ''cage.frey.vriezen.feldman.ayres.johnson manion'', Edition Wandelweiser Records (2010) * ''Jürg Frey: 24 Wörter'', Edition Wandelweiser Records (2014) (with Regula Konrad & Andrew McIntosh) * ''Dante Boon: clarinet (& piano)'',

Another Timbre Another Timbre is a record label, based in Sheffield and known for its releases of free improvisation, experimental and contemporary classical music. It was founded by television sound recordist Simon Reynell, who also engineers and produces most ...

(2016) (with Jürg Frey) * ''Jürg Frey: Collection Gustave Roud'', Another Timbre (2017) (with Jürg Frey, Stefan Thut & Andrew McIntosh) * ''Düsseldorf recital'', Rhizome.s (2017) * ''beuger.boon.susam'', Edition Wandelweiser Records (2018) * ''Antoine Beuger: traces of eternity: of what is yet to be'', a new wave of jazz (2019) * ''Gil Sansón / Lance Austin Olsen: Works on Paper'', Elsewhere (2019) (guest appearance) * ''hannesson.boon.philippakopoulos'', Edition Wandelweiser Records (2019) * ''Rishin Singh: out from the blinding white'', Edition Wandelweiser Records (2019) * ''One Night in Forest Hills'', Bánh Mì Verlag (2020) * ''Jürg Frey: l'air, l'instant - deux pianos'', Elsewhere (2020) * ''amsterdam.berlin.moscow losoncy'', Edition Wandelweiser Records (2021) * ''Paul Baran: Pan Global Riot'', Fang Bomb (2023) (guest appearance) * ''Seamus Cater: A History of Musical Pitch'', Another Timbre (2023) (guest appearance) * ''Dante Boon: Duos'', Edition Wandelweiser Records (2023) * ''

: Dante Boon - Dreamings'', Collection 1001 Notes (2024) * ''Boon Plays Callahan'', FLEA (2024) * ''Palestinian Songs'' (tba) (with Sytske van der Ster) * ''Jürg Frey: Three Piano Pieces'' (tba) * ''Erik Satie: Vexations'' (tba)

References

External links

* *
Dante Boon at Edition Wandelweiser

Profile of Dante Boon by Jesse Goin
Music * * *
Dante Boon plays Morton Feldman's "Last Pieces"
(''

Free Music Archive The Free Music Archive or FMA is an online repository of royalty-free music. Established in 2009 by the East Orange, New Jersey community radio station WFMU and in cooperation with fellow stations KBOO and KEXP, it aims to provide music under Cre ...

'') {{DEFAULTSORT:Boon, Dante Dutch male classical composers Dutch classical composers Dutch classical pianists Minimalist composers Dutch experimental musicians 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers Composers for piano 1973 births Living people Composers for clarinet Dutch male classical pianists 21st-century classical pianists 20th-century Dutch male musicians 21st-century male musicians