Biography

EDUCATION

Joep Franssens (1955) studied composition at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and continued his studies at the Rotterdam Conservatory, where, in 1988, he concluded his education with the Composition Prize.

WORK

Joep Franssens is a representative of the international movement ‘New Spirituality’ in contemporary music in the Netherlands. In his music Franssens aims to express universal humanist values; his sources of inspiration are to be found amongst writers and philosophers like Fernando Pessoa and Baruch de Spinoza. The rich tonal language of his expressive music engages audiences of diverse backgrounds because of its clarity and accessibility, without concessions to quality, and in spite of its rigorous structural organisation. In 2004 the recording of his major choral work Harmony of the Spheres reached the seventh rank of the best sold CDs in The Netherlands.

Franssens’ music has been performed internationally. He has worked with choirs such as the Swedish Radio Choir, BBC Singers, Latvian National State Choir, Finnish Radio Chamber Choir and Netherlands Chamber Choir. The latter took Franssens’ music on tour through Europe and the USA in 2000 and 2001, led by the Estonian conductor Tõnu Kaljuste. Multi-laureate pianist Ralph van Raat has his music in his repertoire since 2000. The first movement of the cycle Harmony of the Spheres has been selected for the ISCM days in Maribor (Slovenia) in September 2003, performed by the BBC Singers conducted by Stephen Betteridge. In the fall of 2012 the orchestral version of this work received its 100th performance by Sinfonia Rotterdam under Conrad van Alphen. The complete cycle was staged again in the fall of 2014 by the Croatian Radio-Television Choir (HRT-choir) with conductor Tonči Bilić.

Well-known conductors like Yakov Kreizberg, Tõnu Kaljuste, Lucas Foss, Gerd Albrecht, Vasily Petrenko, and Daniel Raiskin performed his works with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Lodz Philharmonic Orchestra, Latvian National State Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. He received commissions from, amongst others, Rotterdam Art Foundation, Eduard van Beinum Foundation, Concert Hall De Doelen, Dutch National Radio (ZaterdagMatinee), SNS Reaal Fund and Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, which gave the world premiere of Bridge of Dawn (Second Movement) in Spring 2013.

His orchestral works Phasing and Echo’s were choreographed by Nanine Linning and Toer van Schayk, respectively, with performances in Germany, France and the Netherlands. Phasing was part of two choreograhies by Linning: Endless, and Endless Song of Silence. On the opening programm of the 60th anniversary season of the Dutch National Ballet in 2021, Toer van Schayk created Lucifers Studies, set to Franssens’ Echo’s.

His works have appeared on around eight CDs. Recent CD releases include two publications in collaboration with pianist Ralph van Raat: in 2015 Piano Works presenting The Gift of Song for 2 pianos, and in 2022 the double CD Works for Piano with his recent Piano Concerto. Both CDs appeared on Etcetera Records.

AWARDS

2015 he received the culture prize ‘Het Gouden Viooltje’ (The Golden Violin), an award earmarked for outstanding musical talent, born in the Dutch Northern provinces with an international career. He is the composer of the multi-awards winning dance-opera film Symmetry ( 2015) by Ruben van Leer.

Franssens’ music is published by Deuss Music ( managed by Albersen), The Netherlands

Impulse Art Management

Sumatrakade 1039
1019 RD Amsterdam
The Netherlands

https://impulseartmanagement.nl/en/

Contact:
+31 20 626 6944
info@impulseartmanagement.nl

Member of the International Artist
Managers’ Association (IAMA)