2021, calendar, lecture and debate, music concerts, poetry events, portrait concert, premieres, presentations

dreams of airs (2017-18), athelas sinfonietta, copenhagen, denmark – danish premiere

On Sunday 7 November 2021 at 17:00 CET Athelas Sinfonietta of Copenhagen, Signe Asmussen (voice), and James Sherlock (conductor) present a portrait concert of Rozalie Hirs. The programme evolves around the Danish premiere of Rozalie’s dreams of airs (2017-18), a cycle in which poetry and music play equally important roles. […]

2021, calendar, music concerts, poetry events, portrait concert, premieres, presentations

dreams of airs (2017-18), orgelpark, amsterdam, the netherlands – portrait concert

***POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19*** On Sunday 31 October 2021 at 14:00 CET, the Amsterdam cutting-edge music venue Orgelpark presents a portrait concert of Rozalie Hirs. The performers are Lore Binon (voice), Spectra Ensemble, and Filip Rathé (conductor). The afternoon programme evolves around Rozalie’s dreams of airs (2017-18), a cycle in […]

2021, calendar, dutch, poetry books, poetry events

oneindige zin (infinite sense, 2021)

“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 […]

2021, calendar, music concerts, poetry events, portrait concert, radio, livestream, printed media

infinity stairs (2014), muziekgebouw aan ‘t ij, amsterdam – portrait concert

–> Nederlands On Thursday 13 May 2021 at 20:00 CET Amsterdam’s new music venue Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ presents a portrait concert of Rozalie Hirs with her music and poetry, performed by Marieke Franssen (flute), Fie Schouten (bass clarinet), Wiek Hijmans (electric guitar), and the composer-poet. The corona-proof concert takes […]

2021, calendar, lecture and debate, music concerts, poetry events, portrait concert, premieres, presentations

dreams of airs (2017-18), athelas sinfonietta, copenhagen, denmark – danish premiere

**POSTPONED DUE TO THE PANDEMIC** On Friday 23 April 2021 Athelas Sinfonietta of Copenhagen presents a portrait concert of Rozalie Hirs. The programme evolves around the Danish premiere of Rozalie’s dreams of airs (2017-18), a cycle in which poetry and music play equally important roles. Its sound world features eight […]

2020, calendar, chamber, ensemble, multidisciplinary, music with own poetry, musical works, string quartet, vocal

hand in hand (2020) for string quartet and soprano

Rozalie Hirs composed hand in hand (2020) for soprano and string quartet, based on her own poetry. This commission from Kulturkreis für Neue Musik Heilbronn is inspired on the life and ideas of the German poet Hölderlin. The world premiere takes place on his two-hundred-and-fiftieth birthday, a day later followed by a performance next to his birthhouse in Lauffen am Neckar, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

2020, calendar, music concerts

article 4 (2004), texas, united states

On Sunday 19 January 2020 at 7:30 PM the New York-based violinist Miranda Cuckson plays a solo recital at Duncan Recital Hall (Alice Pratt Brown Hall), The Sherperd School of Music, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA. The recital contains music by Anthony Cheung, Anna Meredith, Reiko Füting, Aida Shirazi, Iannis […]

2019, calendar, music concerts, premieres, presentations, radio, livestream, printed media

lightclouds (2019), concertgebouw – world premiere

On Saturday 18 May 2019 at 14:15 CET at Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Musikfabrik performs lightclouds (2019), a new work for “super brass” quartet, ensemble, and electronic sounds, by Rozalie Hirs, commissioned by Stichting Omroep Muziek/ NTR Zaterdagmatinee with financial support of BankGiro Loterij and Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. The […]

2019, calendar, ensemble, musical works, orchestra

lightclouds (2019)

→ Nederlands contents 1. programme notes, review 2. technical details: orchestration, other technical requirements, duration, publisher 3. performances programme notes Rozalie Hirs: lightclouds (2019) lightclouds (2019) is inspired by so-called noctilucent clouds (Deutsch: leuchtende Nachtwolken; Nederlands: lichtende nachtwolken; Français: nuages noctulescents), a metereological phenomenon of high clouds, that seem to […]

2018, calendar, ensemble, multidisciplinary, musical works

dreams of airs (2017-18)

dreams of airs (2017-18) is a cycle of poetry and music by Rozalie Hirs. Its sound world features eight musicians, a singer who speaks, and electronic sounds. The new full-length composition by the Netherlands-based composer/ poet Rozalie Hirs offers a unique listening experience. The listener is guided through mesmerizing accelerandos and rallentandos in a lounge-like environment. The combination of spoken word, music, and visuals serves to stimulate various senses at once. The visual artists Boris Tellegen and Geert Jan Mulder designed a live video installation for the performance. The duration of the performance is around 60 minutes.

2018, calendar, radio, livestream, printed media

praise for wiek hijmans, volkskrant

31 May 2018. Today a rave review of Wiek Hijmans’ new CD Electric Language appeared in the Dutch national newspaper De Volkskrant. Frits van der Waa writes: “From every note of guitarist Wiek Hijman speaks a flawless mastery of tone and timbre.” And also mentions in particular the “intriguing microtonal […]

2018, calendar, residency

composer-in-residence, maison dora maar, ménerbes, france

From 1 to 31 March 2018 Rozalie Hirs is composer-in-residence at the Maison Dora Maar in Ménerbes, Provence, France. With generous support of a Brown Foundation Fellowship from the Maison Dora Maar. The French photographer, painter, poet Dora Maar (pseudonym for Henriette Theodora Markovitch) owned the house and stayed there […]

2017, dutch, poetry books

further particulars (2017)

further particulars (Dutch: verdere bijzonderheden; Amsterdam: Singel Uitgeverijen| Querido, 2017) is the sixth full-length Dutch poetry book by Rozalie Hirs, published by the Amsterdam-based renowned publisher Uitgeverij Querido.

2017, calendar, musical works, solo

meditations (2017)

contents 1. program notes 2. technical details: orchestration, technical requirements, duration, publisher 3. performances program notes program notes [English; German below] meditations for piano and electronic sounds (2017) was premiered by Philip Thomas at the Dutch contemporary music festivals November Music (Den Bosch) and Sounds of Music (Groningen) in November […]

2017, calendar, musical works

parallel world [breathing] (2017)

parallel world [breathing] (2017) by Rozalie Hirs, commissioned by Concertgebouw Orchestra and University of Amsterdam, with support of the Dutch Performing Arts Fund, is scored for flute, clarinet, 2 harps, percussion, electronic sounds, violin, viola, and cello.

2017, other language, poetry books

gestammelte werke (2017) – a new multilingual poetry book

gestammelte werke (2017) is a new multilingual poetry book by Rozalie Hirs, her manifesto for multilingual reading, and living. For Europe, and the world. Published by KOOKBOOKS Verlag, Berlin, Germany, the book contains original poems in Dutch, German, and English, as well as translations of the poems into up to ten languages. The poems are selected by its publisher Daniela Seel from Hirs’ five most recent poetry books: Speling (Amsterdam: Querido, 2005), Geluksbrenger (Amsterdam: Querido, 2008), gestamelde werken (Amsterdam: Querido, 2012), Curvices and Musicles (Bleiswijk: Uitgeverij Vleugels, 2013), verdere bijzonderheden (Amsterdam: Querido, 2017). The poems are translated from Dutch or English, into German, English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Serbian, Albanian, Swedish, and/or Lithuanian, by Daniela Seel, Diego Puls, Ard Posthuma, Kim Andringa, Henri Deluy, Aurea Sison, Donald Gardner, Daniel Cunin, Anton Papleka, Jelica Novaković, Radovan Lucic, Ausra Gudaviciute, Gytis Norvilas, Nina Tarhan Mouravi, Boerje Bohlin, Moze Jacobs. The cover and book design is by Andreas Töpfer.