About Joep Franssens
EDUCATION
Joep Franssens (1955) studied composition at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 1982 he continued his studies at the Rotterdam Conservatory, where, in 1988, he concluded his study period with the Composition Prize.
WORK
Photo: Coby van Wageningen
Although Franssens’ multifaced musical style does not make it easy to classify him, he is often regarded as the Dutch representative of the so called New Spirituality in the Netherlands. In his music Franssens aims to express the Universal; his sources of inspiration are to be found amongst writers and philosophers like Fernando Pessoa and Baruch de Spinoza. In a rich tonal language his music evokes strong emotions by the public, both unacquainted with contemporary classical music as well as specialised listeners. In 2004 the recording of his major choral work Harmony of the Spheres reached the seventh rank of the classical charts in The Netherlands.