I studied with Christian Lauba in Bordeaux and later with Theo Loevendie at the conservatorium in Amsterdam. In my Oeuvre, there are about two hundred pieces for most instruments including a book for piano (Der Virtuos), a book of songs for baritone voice and piano based on poems in German, Hungarian and French, a small theater piece (Cyrano) and a Concerto for violin and orchestra (Aede). Most of my works have had public performances at different festivals all over the world, for example, Mahler festival in Budapest, Ireland, Japan, USA, Salzburger Festspiele.
As a singer and chansonnier, next to my work as a soloist, I performed together with the Budapest Festival Orchestra in an opera of Iván Fischer or with different groupes. Until 2014 I was part of the Trio Trio de Passage together with saxophonist Hester Cnossen and puppeteer Feike Boschma.
In 2018 a part of my oratorio “Ich umarme Dich” with poems by Paul Celan and one poem by Dagmara Kraus was performed by the Vocalconsort Berlin and the Kaleidoscope ensemble in Berlin
In 2016 my Singspiel Casanova was performed by Claron McFadden and me as soloists and the ensemble of the Ij-Salon consisting mainly of players of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 2015 my composition Peintures for the David Kweksilber Bigband and Leo van Oostrom as a saxophone soloist was performed at a Jazz Jubilee in Arnhem and in the Bimhuis in Amsterdam. In 2014 my composition for orchestra Lebam commissioned by the NSO orchestra and the Dutch Performing Art Funds was performed in the 10 great halls of The Netherlands including the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam. From 2012 to 2014 I performed as a soloist singer with dance groupe LeineRoebana in the production NexT.
In 2012 I gave in the Netherlands a number of concerts together with the Dutch Chamber Choir for which he composed and arranged the hole program and was invited to perform as a soloist and presentator.
At the National Remembrance Ceremony of the 4th of May 2009 in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam in the presence of H.M. the Queen of the Netherlands, H.R.H. the Prince of Orange, H.R.H. Princess Máxima, government officials and members of parliament, two compositions of mine for women choir and tenor solo were performed: Is dit een mens on a text by Primo Levi in the translation of Jan van der Haar and Navertellen on a text by Wim de Bie. These compositions were commissioned by the Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei of the Netherlands.
I have written works for the Budapest Festival Orchestra conducted by Iván Fischer, Stichting het 20ste eeuwse lied, the Leo Smit Ensemble, the Oh-Ton Ensemble (Germany), the Nieuw Ensemble, Het Trio, the Hexagon Ensemble, the Ricciotti Ensemble, the National youth choir of the Netherlands, the Nederlands Kamerkoor, for Harry Sparnaay, Annelie de Man, Arno Bornkamp, Masumi Nagasawa, Reinild Mees, Irene Maessen, Thomas Oliemans, Roger Braun, Ralph van Raat, Klárá Würtz, József Lendvay, Iván Fischer and Isidor Lateiner.
“As a composer and singer, I keep looking for lyricism, atmosphere and timbre. Texts and poems play a special role: they inspire me with the sound and melody of the language in which they are written. Both my contemporary compositions for voice and my songs, the music, are as if they were dictated by the language: the prosody, the meaning and the ‘weight’ of words and phrases, but also by the specific musical characteristics of a language, it’s sound, melody, rhythm and accentuation. In the songs I write and sing, the music will often be at the service of the text. It always concerns me to keep the text intelligible and preserve the music and the emotional content of the text.”