Micha Hamel appointed professor New Music Theatre

Codarts, University for the Arts has appointed conductor, composer and poet Micha Hamel professor New Music Theatre, as of September first. The professorship fits in with the Master Programme New Music Theatre offered by Codarts from the start of the new academic year.

Micha Hamel (1970) graduated at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague in 1994, majoring in composition and orchestra conducting. He has composed works commissioned by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ives Ensemble, the Schönberg Ensemble and Slagwerkgroep Den Haag, to name a few. He has also written music for Theatre Company Maccus, Artemis, the Nationale Toneel, Het Toneel Speelt and Orkater. As a director Hamel has worked with virtually every orchestra in the Netherlands. For two seasons he was assistant conductor with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra – alongside chief conductor Edo de Waart – and from September 2000 he was chief conductor of the Noordhollands Philharmonic Orchestra, until it was dissolved in 2002. He made his debut abroad as a conductor in 1999 with the renowned Ensemble Modern from Frankfurt, Germany. In 2004, Hamel published his first collection of poems, for which he received the Lucy B. and C.W. van der Hoogt Award. A second volume followed in 2006, his third collection this year.

As of 1 September Hamel will combine his current activities with the professorship New Music Theatre, which bears the title Present Practice, Practice of Presence. ‘One of the most conspicuous developments in music is the fact that its forms of presentation are being reinvented so rapidly,’ he says. ‘It inspires me to see how the fusion of different genres has led to a trend in the performing arts that could be labelled intermedial. Successful music theatre is the result of a mutual influencing by various art forms that becomes meaningful – such a confrontation is not a collision but rather an encounter at a higher level.’

Associates of the research group of the professorship New Music Theatre are Gerardjan Rijnders, Jos van Kan, Vincent van Warmerdam, Koen Kaptijn, Caroline Petrick, Thijs de Wit, Frans Starik, Inge Schouten, Rob de Graaf, Inés Sauer, Arlon Luijten and Marc Jonkers.

Starting with the academic year 2010-2011, Codarts offers the Master New Music Theatre. This two-year full-time programme is aimed at musicians, theatre makers, composers, actors, writers, designers and sound designers, among others. The primary task in the programme is to conduct artistic research in the field of the relationship between music, theatre, science, technology, contemporary art, and society. After successfully concluding the programme students obtain the degree of Master of Music.

More information: Marc Jonkers, mjonkers@codarts.nl.