Dutch composer of stage, orchestral, chamber, choral, vocal, piano and electroacoustic works. Also teacher, lecturer, author.
Born on 6th June 1939 Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Died on 1st July 2021 in Weesp, the Netherlands.
Born into a predominant Dutch family of composers that included his father Hendrik Andriessen (1892-1981), uncle Willem Andriessen (1887-1964), elder brother Jurriaan Andriessen (1925-1996) and sister Caecilia Andriessen. Husband of violinist Monica Germino.
Louis Andriessen is esteemed not only for his compositions, which number beyond 130, but also for his teaching (his pupils include Steve Martland and quite literally all major Dutch composers since himself). His works are regularly performed across the globe by some of the world's best ensembles and soloists. He did 3 very successful collaborations with the British filmmaker Peter Greenaway (M Is For Man, Music, Mozart, 1991, Rosa, 1993-1994 and Writing To Vermeer, 1997-1999) and one with the American filmmaker Hal Hartley (The New Math[s], 2000). One of his last large-scale work, La Passione, written for Oliver Knussen and the London Sinfonietta, was premiered in October 2002, during a two-week celebration of his oeuvre at the South Bank Centre in London.
Louis Andriessen has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Selected Work at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris (1977) and the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize twice (1977, 1992). He has founded two new music ensembles in 1972, the wind ensemble Orkest De Volharding (which still performs today), and in 1976, the amplified ensemble Hoketus (which disbanded in 1987). In 1982 he published a book cowritten with Elmer Schönberger, viz. Het Apollinisch Uurwerk (The Apollonian Clockwork, translated by Jeff Hamburg), a study of Igor Stravinsky. In 1974, he began teaching instrumentation at the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag (where he was appointed as a composition teacher in 1978); in 1987, he lectured at Yale University.
