Rozalie Hirs (b. April 7, 1965, Gouda, Netherlands) is a Dutch composer, poet, and scholar, known for her distinctive approach to music, words, and sound. Her poetry is characterized by a fluid and innovative style, playing with sound across multiple layers of meaning and possibilities for interpretation. In her music, Hirs develops her own harmonic language, inspired by the acoustic and psychoacoustic properties of sound and harmony. Her music compositions span a wide range of genres, from vocal and orchestral music to electronic works, often blending traditional instruments with innovative sound techniques. As a poet, Hirs is the author of ten poetry books, written in Dutch, her native language. Six collections have been translated into other languages, with gestammelte werke (Berlin: kookbooks, 2017), a multilingual volume, being the most notable. Her music compositions have been commissioned and performed by notable ensembles and orchestras, including the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, ASKO|Schönberg, Ensemble Klang, Musikfabrik, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Klangforum Wien, at prestigious festivals such as the Holland Festival, Présences (Radio France), and the Donaueschingen Festival.
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“The finely crafted music of composer and poet Rozalie Hirs is color, light, space, wind, movement, and something elusive. This wonderful portrait album features five solo pieces (for cello, voice, bass clarinet, electric guitar, and flute) as well as the trio Infinity Stairs, performed by outstanding musicians. Expansive, sophisticated, and contemplative chamber music that reveals great imagination.” – ★★★★☆ Joep Stapel, Klassiek, NRC, 2025
“Rozalie Hirs is unlike anyone else in the Dutch music landscape — her language is at once mathematical, colorful, and spiritual. [..] As Hirs philosophizes and explores, she creates sound worlds that sometimes feel familiar, sometimes uncannily strange.” — ★★★★☆ Dennis Bajram, Klassiek, Volkskrant, 2025
“Once more, in this collection Hirs proves that she can create a play of poetic language like nobody else. […] Hirs’s ingenious tour de force stands right in the twenty-first century.” – Helena Van Praet, De Reactor
“Departing from this moment of receptivity, Hirs embarks on a surprising and overwhelming exploration of language, time, space, humanity, nature, perception, memory.” – Anne ter Beek, Awater
“The best-kept secret of Dutch poetry. Rozalie Hirs writes poems like no one else does. Lyrical, musical, intuitive and very precise.” – Joost Baars, De Dolfijn
“That way the words of Hirs, who is also active as a composer, are like music: the chords flow into one another rhythmically, quite oblivious of the boundaries of a sentence.” – Jeroen Dera, De Standaard
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“Her spectral thinking, her deft use of electronics, and her seamless fusion with traditional instruments lift her work high above the usual avant-garde terrain. Hirs does not follow existing norms—she sets them. The result is an engrossing and often exhilarating listening experience.” – Aart van der Wal, Opus Klassiek, 2025
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Hirs’ work is informed by the exploration of the intersection of art and science. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Columbia University, where she studied as a Fulbright Fellow, and a Master of Music from the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. Before pursuing her music career, she earned a Master of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Twente. These diverse academic paths have shaped her approach to poetry and composition, where she draws upon principles of acoustics, neurolinguistics, psychoacoustics, and mathematics to develop her unique sound language. Hirs also frequently collaborates with visual artists and designers to create digital poetry for the screen, as well as interactive apps and museum installations.
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