Willem Wander van Nieuwkerk (Amsterdam, 1955) is largely self-taught. His works include choral, chamber and symphonic music besides works for Early Music ensembles, experimental music theatre, children’s theatre (for example with Dutch writer Joke van Leeuwen) and several film scores. His cooperation with ensembles like La Fontegara Amsterdam and Brisk and soloists like Peter Holtslag resulted in a number of works for recorder(s) that are being played and have been recorded by soloists and ensembles all over the world. This includes the much-played Kadanza, the Quartet, So Tear, Bye Bye Blues (C-U, Jesus), The Party (for two recorder quartets) and Voci,voci (for solo recorder)

He has also written works for ceremonial occasions; for example in 1998, the Dutch parliament commissioned the cantata ‘O Nederlanden’ for the national celebration of the Munster Treaty, and the ‘Little Swiss Fantasy’ (for four violins) was written for the Swiss national celebration in 2001. Recently the University of Amsterdam commissioned a Latin setting (soprano, violin and piano) of part of Vergil’s Aenid (Book IV), probably the first of its kind.

Van Nieuwkerk has a particular interest in the dedicated amateur musician, as shown in the suite ‘Bye day, bye night!’ (for children’s choir The Kickers), ‘The Vision’ (for Toonkunstkoor Utrecht) and ‘Utrechtse Heiligenspiegel’ (Utrecht Mirror of Saints), for the Utrecht All Souls-All Saints Festival, as well as in other chamber music pieces (like the trio for clarinet, viola or cello and piano, and ‘Adagio non Adagio’,for recorder, horn and harpsichord). For the BuZZing Foundation he wrote a number of piano pieces for piano two and four hands,‘Piano in the Polder’, recently also available in settings for winds ad lib (‘Winds through the Polder’) or string orchestra (‘Strings in the Polder’)

A number of pieces were written especially for talented young musicians; the ‘Concerto Grosso’(2001) for the Youth String Orchestra ‘Constantijn’, the Piano Quintet (2002) for the summer course Margess International of Switzerland, the ‘Fantasque’ for piano solo for his son Yuri, and recently ‘Kalenda Maya’ (2003) for the young Giocondo String Quartet.

Recent commissions include a work for the recently founded Bártok Trio (pianist Bas Verheijden, violinist Martha Abraham and clarinettist Nancy Braithwaite), and the ‘Three Dance Caprices’ for violin and piano, commissioned by violin pedagogue Coosje Wijzenbeek.

Especially in his later work there is a strong tendency to integrate the rhythmic and melodic experience of recent popular and non-western music with the polyphony and strong sense of form of western music, both Classical (Beethoven, Mozart) and Late-Romantic (Debussy). In his music and writings, he strongly advocates a new, cosmopolitan classicism based on the Classical-Romantic heritage: ‘new classical music’.

Van Nieuwkerk received grants and financial support from most major Dutch music institutions as well as from private persons in Holland and abroad.

He is also a lecturer in 20th century Music History and New Music at the Conservatory of Amsterdam.

Most of his His works are available from Ascolta Music Publishing:

or from the composer: nieuwkerk@worldonline.nl.