Toets des Tijds

Composer-performers in the spotlight

Festival Music from the First Hand focuses on the composer-performer. Before the 20th century, many musicians were both composers and performers, but this has become less so in the last century. From the 20th century onwards, a division has arisen between performers and composers. But this gap is now increasingly being closed by the new generation of musicians, who often combine both professions in their practice. This is also reflected in the recent winners of the Composer Laureate and Matthijs Vermeulen Prize. And in the recent appointment of Martin Fondse (2022, 2023) as Composer Laureate and the winners of the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize Pete Harding (2023), Aart Strootman (2019) and Kate Moore (2017).

The festival aims to showcase the diversity in contemporary music making. Acoustic, electro-acoustic, electronic music and music journalism take place side by side in the festival.