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Joep Stapel selects Symphony No. 1 of Joey Roukens as the best concert of 2022

What were the best concerts and albums of the year? In their personal top 5s, NRC reviewers look back at 2022. Still a performance of the ‘Matthäus’ can be number one on such a personal top list. For someone else, Joey Roukens’ recently completed ‘First Symphony’ was the best concert of the year. While those who experienced a concert on a frozen lake in Norway naturally give that a place in the top.

Joep Stapel did choose Joey Roukens first Symphony as the best concert of 2022!

(Stapel:) At forty, Joey Roukens thought it was time for a true “symphony” in four movements. Eclectic and multicolored, Roukens’ idiosyncratic orchestral music had always been, but here he reaches a new milestone in terms of technical ingenuity and sense of form. Roukens’ First is a masterpiece that deserves many listeners.

The recording of this work will be soon released by Donemus Records…

Read more in the NRC newspaper

More about Joey Roukens’ Symphony

( photo by Judith Jockel)


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Joep Stapel selects Symphony No. 1 of Joey Roukens as the best concert of 2022 on Spotify

Joep Stapel selects Symphony No. 1 of Joey Roukens as the best concert of 2022 on SoundCloud

Published 3 years ago
Composer

Joey Roukens

His output includes orchestral works, ensemble works, chamber music, solo instrumental works and an opera. In his music Roukens strives to move away from modernist ways of thinking in search for a more eclectic and more direct idiom, without reverting to some naive neo-style. In doing so, the composer doesn’t shy away from the use of triads, tonal or diatonic harmonies, a regular rhythmic pulse, directness of expression, simplicity, references to popular music and vernacular culture, ‘stealing’ from the musical heritage of the past and the odd trivial turn.

Joey Roukens was born in Schiedam, the Netherlands, in 1982. He studied composition with Klaas de Vries at the Rotterdam Conservatory and psychology at Leiden University. Roukens also studied piano privately with Ton Hartsuiker.
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About my Symphony No. 1 ‘Kaleidoscopic’ When, as a boy of 11, 12, I fantasised about what it would be like if I became a composer later, I envisioned myself as a composer of symphonies – not as a composer of operas, or piano concertos or chamber music, no, symphonies I would write.
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We congratulate Lucas & Arthur Jussen and Hannes Minnaar for winning the Dutch Edison Classical in the category Solo instrument and Chamber Music. They are great ambassadors for Dutch composers and such a reward is a well-deserved acknowledgement for their strong efforts.
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The premiere of Dorian (14+) will take place at Dutch National Opera & Ballet on Thursday 11 May. Following the successes of Narnia and GRIMM, Dorian is the third joint production by choreographers Ernst Meisner (HNB) and Marco Gerris (ISH).
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The premiere of Dorian (14+) will take place at Dutch National Opera & Ballet on Thursday 11 May. Following the successes of Narnia and GRIMM, Dorian is the third joint production by choreographers Ernst Meisner (HNB) and Marco Gerris (ISH).
Read more
The premiere of Dorian (14+) will take place at Dutch National Opera & Ballet on Thursday 11 May. Following the successes of Narnia and GRIMM, Dorian is the third joint production by choreographers Ernst Meisner (HNB) and Marco Gerris (ISH).
Read more
The premiere of Dorian (14+) will take place at Dutch National Opera & Ballet on Thursday 11 May. Following the successes of Narnia and GRIMM, Dorian is the third joint production by choreographers Ernst Meisner (HNB) and Marco Gerris (ISH).
Read more
The premiere of Dorian (14+) will take place at Dutch National Opera & Ballet on Thursday 11 May. Following the successes of Narnia and GRIMM, Dorian is the third joint production by choreographers Ernst Meisner (HNB) and Marco Gerris (ISH).
Read more

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