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BIOGRAPHY
After a short career in pop music, Douwe Eisenga studied composition at the Conservatory in Groningen (NL). Firmly shaken by all sorts of contemporary composing techniques, it took a while until Eisenga found his own sound after his study.
Around 2001 this own musical language developed rapidly, which resulted in the chamberopera Kabaal, the large-scale Requiem and the premiere of his Piano Concerto in Yokohama, Japan.
He worked with the writer David Mitchell for the project Cloud Atlas, and with theatre company Schweigman+ for the danceperformance Wiek.
Since 2010 his music attained more and more attention worldwide. Pianists as Jeroen van Veen (NL), Lisa Kaplan (US), Nicolas Horvath (FR) & Francesco di Fiore (IT), and harpist Assia Cunego (Germ) play Eisenga’s music in America, Canada, China and Europe.
His Requiem was done again in Rumania, the Italian ensemble PADS recorded the album House of Mirrors and harpist Lavinia Meijer premiered several compositions.
The Claudia Schreier Dance Company premiered the ballet Harmonic in NYC, followed by Charge and Pulse, all set on Eisenga’s music. In 2014 followed the music for The Writer, his Wife, her Mistress, performed by the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet.
Follow-up projects were Momentum as part of the National Celebration of Liberation in 2015, the premiere of Bliss by Cello8tet Amsterdam and Echoes for the Belgian ensemble Origami and a mini-tour with the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble.
In 2017 the pianopiece For Mattia rose to no 53 in the Dutch Heart & Soul List, a list of the 300 most populair classical pieces, chosen by Dutch radio-listeners.
PRESS QUOTES
Music that could have long-range importance - American Record Guide
Douwe Eisenga knows to immerse us miraculously in a timelessness that we could forever linger in - Inactuelles
Eisenga possesses the uncanny ability to write expressive, high-quality music capable of appealing to discerning listeners of all ages - Textura
The man writes the best Minimal Music you know until then and he calls it Maximal Music. Douwe Eisenga is his name. The best Minimal Music, that sounds exaggerated.
Certainly. But it isn't. According to me. Eisenga conjures in his music worlds in my head where courtiers court another, where rivers burst out their banks, where mirror images suddenly reach out, where a summer breeze tickles your neck - PZC
Eisenga drags the listener into a musical world where dreamy melancholy and accelerating sequences alternate with a lot of excitement. Inevitable and very compelling - Klassieke Zaken
This composition testified of an unprecedented mysticism. The Flood of composer Douwe Eisenga can now already be labelled as of the greatest compositions of this time - Rumanian Radio
DISCOGRAPHY
2001 Marcel Worms - More new blues for piano
2003 Super Librum - Thit was to there stunde
2003 Requiem ‘53
2006 Rose Road - City Lines
2007 Marcel Worms - Red, White & Blues
2009 Music for Wiek
2009 Cloud Atlas
2009 The Piano Files
2010 Clazz Ensemble - Delta Suite
2010 Jeroen van Veen & Friends - Minimal Piano Collection X-XX
2011 PADS - House of Mirrors
2013 Cloud Atlas (special edition)
2015 The Flood, Requiem
2015 Alternatives
2015 Simon Songs
2015 The Writer, his Wife, her Mistress
2015 Summary
2015 Westland Saxophone Orchestra - Fansaxtic
2016 Erika Tazawa - Rhythm of Silence
2016 The Piano Files II
2017 Kabaal (Uproar)
2017 For Mattia (single)
2018 Feico Deutekom – Feico Solo
2019 For Mattia (album)
2019 For You Have Delivered My Soul