Dutch Composers NOW is the collective promotion agency for new music in the Netherlands. We promote new music, honour and celebrate composers and their projects and we open doors for new target groups.

We do this with a number of strategic programs. 1) The New Music NOW platform, where we activate and promote our Do-It-Together network of composers, musicians and music lovers. With the Dutch Composers Day, City Composers, our Composition Fund and with Composer-Curators we infiltrate various cities, festivals, conferences and other networks, where we create new contexts and appeal to new audiences.

Dutch Composers NOW is an independent foundation and works together with partners to encourage the flowering of new music.

New Music NOW is the digital platform for new music. It presents many of the urgent & relevant composers, performers and projects in today’s Dutch new music scene. It also serves as a practical who-is-who-directory to NL ensembles, orchestras, stages, festivals, publishers, labels, media and online platforms, funds and their ongoing collaboration with NL-based composers.

New Music NOW

On Saturday 18 June 2022, New Music NOW launched the very first Dutch Composers Day with the motto “Long live the Composer! A celebration of new music”. More than 100 concerts on one day, with music by more than 100 composers in 10 cities. Music by composers active in the Netherlands could be heard throughout the country: not only in concert halls and theatres, but also from bell towers, on the street and in living rooms. The entire day Dutch NPO Radio4 is dedicated to composers active in the Netherlands. NTR and VPRO broadcast live from TivoliVredenburg, and New Music NOW streams all day. Reporters from all over the country report on the Day of the Composer.

With the Day of the Composer, the Netherlands celebrates the value and importance of living contemporary music, with the composer in the spotlight.

The 2nd edition will take place on June 17th 2023.

Celebrate the music, support the creators! Director Esther Gottschalk: “We dream of more time & attention for making, playing & sharing new music. That is why we are building our own Do-It-Together Platform and Composition Fund. Of every euro donated to New Music NOW, half goes to promotion and half to the composition fund. Big or small, every donation helps.

Donate too!

Thanks to extra money from the Ministry of OCW and Buma Cultuur, we have been able to implement the New Music NOW Files composition scheme. With as much as six tonnes for - We want to expand this further, of course”. The New Music NOW Files composition scheme has honoured 46 composers and their projects with a total budget of 600,000 euros. The 46 new compositions and audiovisual productions will be available to a new audience in 2022 and early 2023 on New Music NOW, radio, TV, online and in theatres and festivals. The scheme came about thanks to Buma Cultuur and the support package of OCW. Prince Bernhard Culture Fund made an additional contribution. The choice was made by an independent professional jury. Click here to download the complete description of this subsidy scheme as well as the conditions of participation, as a zip-file.

Marcia (not her real name), herself choral conductor, decided to support composers in time of covid-crisis, by commissioning them to make short, well singable compositions for the many amateur choirs. In this way she has made possible 45 choral compositions, which she puts at the disposal of all amateur choirs free of charge. Her aim: to support the composers and choirs and to strengthen the bond between living composers and amateur choirs.

She did the same for Chamber Music, and commissioned 16 composers and Splendor - members to write new pieces, that can be played by amateur musicians.

The Dutch Composers NOW Foundation took on the coordination and communication, together with Splendor Amsterdam, Koornetwerk Nederland, Groot Omroepkoor, the publishers involved and Nieuw Geneco. Autobahn Studio signed for the design, GODDOG built the website.

On Dutch Choir Music NOW everyone can discover, listen to and download new choir music for free. On Dutch Ensemble Music NOW all ensembles compositions are ready for a free download.

Dutch Composers NOW’s infiltration program focuses on a select number of crossover festivals, where our composer-curators bring a challenging program featuring groundbreaking composers from the contemporary music scene.

For example, we are programming at the Amsterdam Dance Event.

ADE Culture & Arts Special: Bits & Pieces

2022Dutch Composers NOW presents border-crossing experimental, minimal, Electro-Acoustic, Contemporary Classical live performances by Orphax, De Grove Korrel & Trio Konstantinidou, Rosa, La Berge. Bits & Pieces is curated by composer David Dramm.

2021 In “Bits & Pieces” the NL-based composer-performers Gerri Jäger, Evelien van den Broek, JB Bollen en No Plexus take you on a live trip, chirping synths, field recordings, digital entities, generation Y, and a tangle of electronics. Bits & Pieces is curated by composer-performer Evelien van den Broek.

2020 In “Magnets & Plants”, composer-curator Ivo Bol takes you into the magical universe of composers who manage to make even magnets and plants sound. For these composer-performers and their unique, self-designed instruments, the Beurs van Berlage opened its doors for a covid-proof live concert. Featuring composer-performers Jasna Veličković, Dianne Verdonk, Vinkepeezer and Ties Mellema/Barry Jurjus.

www.amsterdam-dance-event.nl

Dutch Composers NOW encourages the appointment of City Composers in various cultural cities in the Netherlands. The City of Tilburg was the first to launch City Composer. Now the Province of Noord Brabant is proud to announce three city composers: Matthijs Leeuwis (Tilburg), Angela de Weijer - aka Miss Milivolt - (Meierijstad)), Bart de Vrees (Den Bosch) and one rural composers: Piet-Jan van Rossum. On the Dutch Composers Day, the municipality of Goes will announce its first City Composer of Goes.

Read our article on New Music NOW, and watch the introductory film about the urban and rural composers Brabant.

Like the National Composers Laureate (Componist des Vaderlands), the City Composer is a visible driving force in contemporary music life, connecting at all levels: regional, national and international; from amateur to professional.

Our aim is to honour and celebrate the existing (or latent) music policy of the municipalities and provinces. To help and further stimulate urban and regional policy on contemporary music. And promote a supportive climate for composing.

Curious? Contact Dutch Composers NOW.

Members of the board of the Dutch Composers NOW foundation are:
Annett Andriesen, Chair
Siebe van Elsloo, Treasurer
Anne-Maartje Lemereis, Secretary
Henry Kelder, Board member
Anthony Fiumara, Board member

Dutch Composers NOW endorses the governance code culture and the code diversity & inclusion and the fair practice code.
The members of the board have no remuneration for their activities.

Files ANBI info