Richard Rijnvos (born 16 December 1964, in

Tilburg Tilburg () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern province of North Brabant. With a population of 222,601 (1 July 2021), it is the second-largest city or municipality in North Brabant after Eindhoven and the seventh-larg ...

) is a Dutch composer.Richard Rijnvos
Department of Music, University of Durham

Education and influences

Rijnvos studied composition at the

Royal Conservatory of 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 ...

with Jan van Vlijmen and

Brian Ferneyhough Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and ...

. He received a DAAD scholarship and attended a postgraduate course at the Musikhochschule in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

. In 1994 he took part in the International Course for Professional Choreographers and Composers at

Bretton Hall Bretton Hall may refer to: *Bretton Hall, Flintshire, former fortified manor house on the England/Wales border *Bretton Hall, West Yorkshire, country house in West Yorkshire, England *Bretton Hall College Bretton Hall College of Education was a h ...

(

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

, UK). Contacts with

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 ...

and

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 ...

between 1986 and 1992 were a major influence on his development. Rijnvos has also been influenced by the works of artists outside of music such as

William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

and

Italo Calvino Italo Calvino (, also , ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian writer and journalist. His best known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosmicomi ...

Compositions

Rijnvos has written for solo instrumentalists, small ensembles, symphony and chamber orchestra. He has written several cycles, such as ''Block Beuys'' (1995–2000), based on the collection of works by Joseph Beuys in the

Hessisches Landesmuseum Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt (HLMD) is a large multidisciplinary museum in Darmstadt, Germany. The museum exhibits Rembrandt, Beuys, a primeval horse and a mastodon under the slogan "The whole world under one roof". As one of the oldest pub ...

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

, and the prize-winning three-part ''NYConcerto'' (2004–2006). Commissioned by the Netherlands Radio 4, he wrote ''Riflesso sull'acqua'' for cor anglais and orchestra, premiered in 2008. Richard Rijnvos has received commissions from the

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra ( nl, Koninklĳk Concertgebouworkest, ) is a Dutch symphony orchestra, based at the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw (concert hall). Considered one of the world's leading orchestras, Queen Beatrix conferred the " ...

and

Ensemble Intercontemporain The Ensemble intercontemporain (EIC) is a French music ensemble, based in Paris, that is dedicated to contemporary music. Pierre Boulez founded the EIC in 1976 for this purpose, the first permanent organization of its type in the world. Organi ...

. In 2008, he was a featured composer at ''November Music'', Holland's annual contemporary music festival.

Awards

In 2000 Rijnvos was awarded the

Matthijs Vermeulen Award The Matthijs Vermeulen Award is the most important Dutch composition prize. It was named after the Dutch composer Matthijs Vermeulen (1888–1967). During the years 1972 through 2004, the prize was awarded annually by the Amsterdam Foundation f ...

for ''Times Square Dance''. In August 2008 he was awarded the ''Buma Toonzetters Prize'' for ''NYConcerto''.

Other activities

Between October 2009 and 2016 Rijnvos was Head of Composition in the Department of Music at the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

; in 2014, he was appointed Chair of Composition at the same institution, and continues to serve in that role. He is also chairman of the Union of Composers in the Netherlands, and artistic advisor of the Ives Ensemble, of which he was managing director between 1991 and 2000.

Note

The article incorporates material translated from the Dutch Wikipedia as of December 2009. Richard Rijnvos, Dutch Wikipedia

References

External links

Composer's website

Composer in the Spotlight: Richard Rijnvos
Netherlands Music Centre {{DEFAULTSORT:Rijnvos, Richard 1964 births Living people 21st-century classical composers 20th-century classical composers Contemporary classical music performers Dutch male classical composers Dutch classical composers Musicians from Tilburg Royal Conservatory of The Hague alumni Hochschule für Musik Freiburg alumni 20th-century Dutch male musicians 21st-century male musicians