Michel van der Aa

• one of the most outstanding Dutch composers of his generation, with his expressively powerful music and an idiomatic sense for the stage, combining sounds and scenic images in a play of changing perspectives
• creates his imaginative music theatre works as a film and stage director as well as composer
• after training as music recording engineer at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, studied composition with Diderik Wagenaar, Gilius van Bergeijk and Louis Andriessen; completed a course in film directing at the New York Film Academy, and collaborated with film makers Peter Greenaway and Hal Hartley, and with choreographers including Philippe Blanchard
• is programmed at leading festivals for contemporary music, his works being played by many renowned international
• awarded the Gaudeamus Prize (1999), the Vermeulen Prize (2004, for One), a Siemens Grant (2005), the Charlotte Köhler Prize (2005), the Hindemith Prize (2006), the Kagel Prize (2013), the Grawemeyer Award (2013, for Up-close), the Johannes Vermeer Award (2015) and the International Opera Award (2021, for Upload)
• recordings on the Col Legno, Harmonia Mundi, Composer’s Voice, BVHaast, X-OR and VPRO Eigenwijs labels

Works by Michel van der Aa include:
Upload (2019–20) Film opera
The Book of Water (2021–22) Chamber music theatre for actor, string quartet, and film
Up-close (2010) for solo cello, string ensemble and film
Violin Concerto (2014) for violin and orchestra

Looking Ahead: works on a new music theatre work Theory of Flames for Dutch National Opera (WP Mar 2026)

"One of the most distinctive of the younger composers in Europe today. His ability to fuse music, text and visual images into a totally organic whole sets him apart from nearly all his contemporaries." — Andrew Clements, The Guardian

Also visit the Michel van der Aa website at www.vanderaa.net