January 2026
Wishing everybody a happy new year, in spite of all the chaos in the world right now.
After two months without premières January will bring three of them within an eight day span. First up on January 16th is Meet: DESTINY a new dance / theatre performance made by Ryan Djojokarso with his company Danstheater AYA. Aimed at young audiences of ages 12 and up the show is a high energy concert by pop idol Destiny, bringing her message of female empowerment and being yourself. But behind the scenes she is struggling to bring her on stage message into practice in her own life. For this show I had the pleasure of making instrumental tracks for Destiny’s songs and visuals to go with them. Come and see it in Jeugdtheater De Krakeling or on tour.
On January 21st a new work by choreographer Antonin Rioche for the Bodhi Company will première at Szene Salzburg. Comme Si Tout Allait S’Arrêter is a piece about the intensity of modern life. For this show I did additional sound design, adding to the basis made by composer Ralph Heidel and Antonin.
Last but not least on January 24th is the première of Devī by Poernima Gobardhan. It’s the next installment of her search for a movement language that exists between classical Bharata Natyam and contemporary forms and genres. The result is a choreographic world of her own. Starting in Korzo the piece can be seen across the Netherlands in the upcoming months. For Devī I developed a score around the concept of an eternal cyclic pulse, with contributions by S.V. Giridhar.
November 2025
After a successful opening night Oscar en de Reus (“Oscar and the Giant”) can still be seen for two more weeks in The Hague. An impression through the eyes and pen of a theatre critic can be found at Theaterkrant.nl
The first public presentation of Cube went well. A truly special première to this remote collaboration, where Roger Alsop and me were not working in the same room until that day. We are now contemplating the ways to take the piece further.
The tour of Yanasei is also still going strong, with several more opportunities to see this special piece about the afterlife through the eyes of a child.
October 2025
World Stage Design is coming up in Sharjah (UAE) and it will be a busy one for me. In addition to the sound design for Ryan Djojokarso’s HERFST being selected for the main design exhibition I’m also presenting a workshop as part of Scenofest, and premièring Cube, a new sound art work in collaboration with Australian artist Roger Alsop.
The Nederlandse Dansdagen festival in Maastricht presents a short excerpt from AYA’s LOEV as part of their opening gala on October 3rd. During which the AYA team will be crossing their fingers for Sam Corver, who has been nominated for the award for best dance performance for a young audience for his rol in this piece.
October 30th will see the première of Oscar en de Reus (“Oscar and the Giant”). A new theatre play by House of Rat, written by David Geysen and directed by Beaudil Elzenga. I’m contributing a light design to this story of a short but remarkable life seen through the eyes of a parent.
In the meantime Yanasei is still touring the Netherlands.
September 2025
A new theatre season is starting and with it comes a reprise tour of Yanasei. After a première and tour in early 2024 this work can now be seen again in theatres across the Netherlands. Aimed at audiences of ages 6 and up this show is named after the Surinamese word for the hereafter and takes you on an adventurous trip through the afterlife.
June 2025
Dark Matter by Rutkay Özpinar for the Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet had a great première and two more shows. Keep an eye out for further appearances of this piece later this year.
With the theatre season slowly turning into the festival season June seems quiet on the outside, but preparations for next season and next year are keeping me quite busy.
May 2025
May 20th is the première of a new work by Rutkay Özpinar, with original music by me. The piece is called Dark Matter and is made for the super talented young dancers of the Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet. If you are around come and see it in Amsterdam as part of the double bill called Kalpana & Rutkay, which also features a new creation by Kalpana Raghuraman.
Meanwhile Ays’s LOEV is still successfully touring. If you want to catch it before the end of the tour you can still do so in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Dordrecht or Heerhugowaard.
There’s also one more opportunity to see Poernima Gobardhan’s STRĪ on May 16th in Utrecht’s Theater Kikker.
The upcoming edition of World Stage Design is going to be a busy one, because in addition to my workshop for Scenofest I also got the news that the sound design for Ryan Djojokarso’s HERFST is on the short list for the main design exhibition. All short listed designs will be represented in the exhibition in Sharjah, UAE.
April 2025
LOEV by Danstheater Aya and Maat Saxophone Quartet was well received and is currently touring the Netherlands. A burst of positive energy with 8 performers is playing for both schools and general audiences of ages 8 and up.
In the second half of april Tap Noir will unleash it’s percussive, stroboscopic deluge on audiences in Oslo, during 3 shows at Dansens Hus. While immersive and sensory experiences are very much buzz words these days this is one of those works that inherently lives up to them, with many of the optical illusions at play created on the spot caused by physiology of your eyes, unable to be caught on video or reproduced in digital ways.
March 2025
March is a première month, with LOEV by danstheater AYA having it’s opening night on March 14th in de Krakeling. A new piece for audiences of age 8 and up by Ryan Djojokarso in collaboration with Maat Saxophone Quartet. I had the great pleasure of creating soundscapes and electronic music for it, to go along with compositions and arrangements by Maat’s Daniel Ferreira. The show will be touring the Netherlands until the end of May so do drop by, even if your age is a significant multitude of 8.
February 2025
February brings more opportunities to see STRĪ by Poernima Gobardhan in the Schuur (Haarlem) and Something About Something by Rutkay Özpinar’s in various theaters around Holland.
This year will also see a new edition of World Stage Design, a 4-yearly event celebrating and showcasing stage design in all it’s shapes and forms. Organized by OISTAT it will take place in Sharjah, the cultural capital of the United Arab Emirates. The Scenofest part of the program has just been announced and as a part of this I will give a workshop on creating a geolocated soundwalk on October 24th.
January 2025
First of all a happy new year to all!
From January 21st onwards Rutkay Özpinar’s trio piece Something About Something will be touring the Netherlands, in a double bill with a new work by Faizah Grootens. So if you missed the première or the recent Lift Off triple bill there are more opportunities to see this highly energetic work until about halfway through March.
In the meantime a reprise tour of Ryan Djojokarso’s Yanasei has been confirmed for the 2025/2026 season. Death and the afterlife might not be the most obvious topics for a work for young audiences of ages 8 and up. But they led to a well received piece that can be experienced again from the fall.
December 2024
December marks the start of a tour for STRĪ by choreographer Poernima Gobardhan (with original music by Vidwan SV Giridhar and me) after a première during the India Dance Festival last May. The first stop is one close to home for me: Theater Rotterdam on December 17th and 18th.
Through my soundwalk project Vééls te Ècht I got to know the Echoes.xyz platform and the people behind it. Our correspondence during several Echoes-based projects led to a commission to write an introduction to creating geolocated soundwalks for them. This has now been published as a part of a new documentation framework for Echoes. The current version can be read on the documentation server, where my contribution (a 10.000 word longread spanning many topics) can be found labelled Design Guide.
November 2024
November will bring the première of a new work by choreographer Rutkay Özpinar. It’s a solo named after his alter ego Johnny Montgomery for which I made the music. The opening night sees this piece in a triple bill of pieces by Rutkay titled Lift Off. Also on the program are our previous collaboration Something About Something, and a choreography Rutkay made for a group of young talented dancers from the Codarts Lyceum.
At the end of the month I’m off to Villach for the STELLA*24 Gala, because my score for Matta Matta 2.0 by Jasper Džuki Jelen and Mojra Vogelnik Škerlj was nominated for an award. The newest iteration of this piece by VRUM got the music & soundscape nominated for the STELLA*24 prize for outstanding achievements in the field of performing arts for young audiences in Austria.
October 2024
Fall weather has reached Rotterdam and the new theatre season is off to a busy start.
October 17th will see the première of We Are Doing Great, a new work by choreographer Antonin Rioche at Korzo. A theatrical exploration of ‘the suspended moment at the conclusion of most relationships, a pause fueled by the fear of the inevitable separation’. For this piece I’m doing additional sound design, surrounding a score of existing ‘memory songs’ selected by Antonin. After the première the piece can also been seen in Theater Bellevue on Tuesday 22/10.
On October 21st I am co-hosting an online introduction to the new Grapes3D spatial audio software, on behalf of the OISTAT Sound Design group. Developer Felix Deufel of Grapes3D will show his project which enables manufacturer-agnostic programming of spatial audio, useable for controlling multiple spatializer engines from a single interface. Feel very welcome to join if you have an interest in spatial audio. (If you are not an OISTAT member just select “guest” on the registration form.)
September 2024
The newest news is this website itself! Long overdue it now serves as a personal web presence and archive at once. While a big part of the archive is still to be added I hope to at least keep up with current works and projects. Design by Sibe Kokke / NOTDEF (Thank you!)
On September 13th HERFST by Libi / Ryan Djojokarso can be seen one more time. The piece was selected for the Dutch Theaterfestival, which means the jury rated it as one of the best performances of the 2023/2024 season. A fusion of dance, theatre, music and visual arts this work about mourning by Ryan Djojokarso is both universal and extremely personal at once. I had the great pleasure of making music for it, together with singers Bernadeta Astari and Tiffany Vicario who are performing live. Venue for the reprise is the International Theater Amsterdam. (tickets and more information)