Volver

Michel Van der Aa | The disquiet man

10/03/2014

Michel van der Aa es un hombre muy inquieto, no para. Pero su inquietud no es solo por la vorágine de proyectos que va enlazando uno tras otro, sino por una necesidad de crear, de inventar, de proponer siempre cosas nuevas con un lenguaje propio, a veces innovador, otras inquietante, siempre con aspectos interdisciplinares y con esa concepción teatral tan suya que está presente en su trabajo.

Ruth Prieto, for ComposerSpeaks, interviews composer Michel van der Aa

Amsterdam, Januery 2014



The disquiet man

1. Ruth Prieto: Which characteristic defines you best?

Michel Vander Aa: Ok, it’s a difficult one, if I have to choose one word it would be disquiet, which means something like restless.

2. R.P.: What are you working on now?

Michel Vander Aa: I am working on a violin Concerto right now, for a dutch player called Janine Jansen for the Royal Concertgebouw orquestra, it is a piece which is going to be premiered in November in Amsterdam and then goes to Germany and to Bergen in Norway and hopefully in some other places a well.

3. R.P.: Is this your first concerto for violin?

Michel Vander Aa: Yes, I have written a lot for violin but not a concerto yet.

4. R.P.: What is your main obsession when you are working?

Michel Vander Aa: The obsessions change for each piece actually, every piece has different themes and a different subject I find myself quite obsessed with different things. For this violin concerto for example I am thinking a lot about how do you write a violin concerto in this century you know with all the great concertos that are already there and what can I add to that, is something that I would like to do with this wonderful player Janine Jansen who is not only an amazing player but also very theatrical one. So I am thinking about some visual and theatrical ideas as well.
I guess my obsession often has a lot to do with the sound object of the piece and the way I want translate it to an audience, in a way that feels very close to me and close to my language.

5. R.P.: Can you define «contemporary»? and in which way Michel Vander Aa is “contemporary”?

Michel Vander Aa: I don´t believe in separate jars as you know if you know my work I like to combine many things and for me contemporary classical music is probably something that is different from me that from other people I listen a lot to many different types of music through jazz, pop music so my work is influence by all these colours and also of course by films and the visual layer that I use so I think that in my last opera Sunken Garden I collaborated with a wonderful Australian pop singer Kate Miller-Heidke and the songs that I wrote for her were all classical pop songs with beats and this all took place in the opera and I like the fact that we don´t have to worry about that any more, for my generation and especially older generations like yourself this is not a question anymore.

6. R.P.: What inspires you as a composer and why?

Michel Vander Aa: I see a lot of movies, I go to a lot of exhibitions, to art installations, and to theater and I read a lot of art forms so I can get very inspired by a new David Lynch film, or Bill Viola artswork, or a great book that I am reading, or a new choreography and I really like a lot of different art forms and I especially like this combination in my life.

7. R.P.: What are your musical roots (real or imaginary)?

Michel Vander Aa: I think my first roots are the classical guitar. I started to play when I was very young at nine years old and this always has been my instrument together with the piano. But when I was a teenager I played electric guitar of course and when I was 17, 18, 19 of course I played in a lot of bands pop music and rock music and songs so this is part of my roots at home. I also listen to classical music and my father was a conductor and my mother was a very good amateur alto singer so there was always music in the house and I really grew up with a mix of Bach, the Beatles, Abba and everything else that was happening at the time.

8. R.P.: Have you got any eccentricities when composing?

Michel Vander Aa: Yes I have a little ritual in the morning, I have to make my espresso, I really love coffee and I have to drink at least one or two espressos and sharpen all my pencils before I can start working. I usually work best in the mornings better than in the afternoons the block from when I wake up until lunch is my best time and most productive and when I come with the best ideas, but sometimes I get ideas in the shower or brushing my teeth or in the tram, is where my brain works.

9. R.P.: What was most recent moment of pleasure that you got from music?

Michel Vander Aa: I have daily pleasures in music, I listen to a lot of music like I said and I hear all these interesting things come by and I see so many nice life performances as well, you know in that respect Amsterdam is very nice city to live in because every night there’s a lot happening I can go to a jazz concert to a classical music or contemporary music or the pop and I really like the mix of these things.

10. R.P.: What is composition for you in this day and age?

Michel Vander Aa: I think I have already answered that before for me it is really a mix of all these art forms and all these medias I think I grew up, I mean there is so much image culture right now so much television and films and theatre and I use all this aspects in my vocabulary, my musical vocabulary for me it is a natural balance for all the things I like to see and hear and I think it is the language of people today and I always appreciate that and connect to that.

11. R.P.: If you had not been a composer, what would you like to have been?

Michel Vander Aa: Either a film maker or a cook. I like cooking I think many composers are into cooking it is the way you balance ingredients to come to the perfect dish that you can serve and eat in a certain amount of time there are a lot of parallels with composing.

12. R.P.: What has your greatest extravagance been?

Michel Vander Aa: I guess people would consider my last opera Sunken Garden at some points to be extravagance like I said I used pop music in it and I use 3D film and some people hated it and some people loved it and there was a lot of discussion about it if it was still opera I took quite a lot of risk with that piece and I am very happy that I did because I think when you are composing you need be able to take a fresh approach to each piece and not sit back and repeat what you have already done

13. R.P.: What does music contribute to education?

Michel Vander Aa: It´s incredibly important, unfortunately in many countries I don´t know how it is in your country but in my country musical education has been reduced and cut away a lot and I think you know by educating you know on primary schools and on mid-schools introducing people to classical music and to art in general I think is so important for future generations and for people understanding these worlds that they otherwise would never find themselves in so I think it´s very important that we show them that it is there and even if they hate it at least they know what it is, where it there and where I can find it and because otherwise later in life they won´t have the access or the potentially would not have access and I think it’s enormously important to have schools, gardeci place, schools, class, country class music concert store, opera and some people maybe of 25 people in the class maybe two or three will fall in love with it and for the rest of us became fans of opera, of classical music and is already worth it for this people you know.

At this time in Europe some seems to be in fashion for polititians that making very strong points about culture and polarising a lot: they think it should be very commercial and fill the seats in the hall or they think that it should not be supported at all there is no love and tolerance any more for the more vulnerable art, the adventure, the small, interesting colours, the government suddenly stopped supporting all the small production houses and small companies.

14. R.P. : What would you like to do in music that you have not been asked to do yet?

Michel Vander Aa: I´m thinking about a new opera project which will be very new with some new technology as well and I would like to explore the pop roots that I have a little bit more and I already collaborate with an English band on a new album, and I´m realizing some plans to release an LP together so I like the fact of exploring new colours be able to do that.

I am in a very fortunate position that I do what I want to do people give me these opportunities I am blessed and I am sure you know people I would like to work with like Bill Viola or like other artists I am fortunate that I can if I have an idea I can find people to execute the idea and to produce the idea so I have no complaints and no big wishes at the moment.

15. R.P.: What would Michel Vander Aa say about Michel Vander Aa?

Michel Vander Aa: Pretty much what I said last 20 minutes (laughter) you know I think if people want to get to know me a little bit better I would say if they like they can follow my twitter account or my facebook page and see behind the scene the tweets and posts about the making process of my works and they see also sometimes some days there only coffee making in the morning and not composing so I think I would invite people to you know join me in the social medias if they like.

Volver