Michael van der Aa

Was born in 1970 in Holland. He studied composition and music engineering with Diderik Wagenaar, Gilius van Bergeik and Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 2002 he studied film directing at the Film Academy in New York.
His compositional output includes instrumental, orchestral, vocal and electroacoustic music. He often collaborates with choreographers (Kazuko Hirabayashi, Philippe Blanchard, Ben Wright) and film directors (Hal Hartley, Peter Greenaway).
His works have been performed by leading Dutch new music ensembles and recorded for Dutch Radio and various labels. He has received commissions from the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, Donaueschinger Musiktage, the Netherlands Opera, vpro Television, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden, Ives Ensemble, the New National Theatre in Tokyo, Schönberg Ensemble, Asko Ensemble, and Orkest de Volharding.
He was the first Dutchman to win the prestigious International Gaudeamus Prize (1999; for Between). In 2000 he won the Matthijs Vermeulen Incentive Prize from the Amsterdam Art Foundation for Attach.

Selected works: Auburn for guitar and tape (1994), OOg for cello and tape (1995/2000), Between for percussion quartet and tape (1997), Double for violin and tape (1997), Solo for percussion (1997), Quadrival for flute, violin, cello and piano (1997), Attach for ensemble and electro-nics (1999), Above for ensemble and electronics (1999), Just before for piano and electronics (2000), See-through for orchestra (2000/2001), Here (to be found) for soprano and chamber orchestra (2001).

Auburn for guitar or electric guitar and tape (in Dutch the title means Ored-brown1) is an attempt to present the many sound colours and the wide range of performance techniques of the classical guitar. The composer employs an interaction of extremes, the intimate, warm and slightly introverted fingerpicking and the temperament, as well as percussive outbursts. The tape part requires the guitarist to react very fast and challenges the player to show more of the extroverted side of the instrument.
Auburn is dedicated to Reinhold Westerheide, who gave its first performance on 18 July 1994 at Schouwburg Odeon. The piece can be performed on an electric, semi-acoustic guitar. Wiek Hijmans performs it in this version.