Klaas de Vries

Klaas de Vries is above all a theatrical composer. His fascination for literature is a central theme in his work. Fernando Pessoa, Gabriel García Márquez, Virginia Woolf and recently David Mitchell: all writers who have found a place in his compositions.

This has led to large operas, but also to the establishment of the musical theatre company De Helling. He based the libretto for his opera A King, Riding (1995) on Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves. The piece received its premiere in Brussels in a production by the acclaimed Swiss director Christoph Marthaler and was awarded the Netherlands’ most important composition prize the Matthijs Vermeulen Award. He composed Wake (2010) based on a libretto by David Mitchell, in memory of the firework disaster in the Dutch city of Enschede.

De Vries also shows himself to be a theatrical composer in his instrumental works, an aural painter who evokes visions. The CD of his orchestral work Providence (2011), for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO), was praised in the British classical music magazine Gramophone. In 2015, he composed a work for the RCO once again, including live electronics, entitled Schizzo.

The music of de Vries is inspired by the work of other composers. The skilful listener hears a web of references coursing beneath the surface of the sounds. Music journalist Erik Voermans aptly wrote: “Klaas de Vries is a magician, a visionary and, most of all, a romantic. A seeker; not a finder. His inspiration is fuelled by writers, poets, film makers, painters and fellow composers who transform reality, lift it up and transport it, turn it around, turn it inside out, or even completely rediscover it.”

www.deussmusic.com