Anne-Maartje Lemereis (1989) will be the Composer Laureate for the next two years. This was announced on Thursday evening in TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht. The composer of the country of the past two years, Martin Fondse (1967), passed on his honorary position to Lemereis.
According to the four-member jury that appoints the Composer Laureate, Lemereis is a composer with his own sound language, an “original spirit that knows how to respond to daily current events in a playful way.” According to the jury, she can not only get her ideas down on paper, but she also knows how to inspire the “whole world” with them. Lemereis is also praised for her ability to work with both professionals and amateurs, and for her focus on the emancipation of composition lessons in music education.
Lemereis, born in Amersfoort, first studied piano at the conservatory in Utrecht, and then switched to composition. She is now a composition teacher at the Utrecht Conservatory and city composer of Goes. With her foundation In de Knop, she and her friend, composer Remy Alexander, also introduce young children to composing. In 2015 she founded an accessible to everyone in Amersfoort neighborhood orchestra on.
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Focus on music education
In an initial reaction to her appointment, Lemereis says she wants to focus mainly on music education over the next two years. “Not reproducing other people’s productions, but making your own work.”
The Composer Laureate was created in 2014 by Buma culture. The position has so far been filled by Willem Jeths (2014-2016), Mayke Nas (2016-2018), Calliope Tsoupaki (2018-2021) and Martin Fondse (2022-2024).
As a composer of the fatherland, Fondse wanted, among other things, to capture the provinces in music. Regional variations were still popular a few months ago Your Favorite Music Stationwhich was played in its own way on Composer’s Day this year in various parts of the Netherlands.
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