DCV 081 – Guus Janssen: Keer / Dans Van De Malic Matrijzen / Passevite / Bruuks / Vestelwerk

Guus Janssen (1951) studied piano and composition at the Sweelinck Academy of Music in Amsterdam. His music is difficult to categorize. It can be a composed improvisation (Brake for pianosolo) or an improvised composition (parts from his Violin Concerto or his opera Noach).

Pianist, organist and composer Guus Janssen is a welcome guest in the Orgelpark. His new compositions are a reason to dedicate a composer’s portrait to him. Janssen published a collection of new organ music from which several works will be played on April 6.

Several works by Guus Janssen will be premiered at the Orgelpark on 6 April. In 2021, the Geestgronden label released a CD (GG27) entitled ‘Organ’ with improvisations played by him on the organ of ‘de Vermaning’ in Zaandam. As a basis for those improvisations, he used material composed by him in all possible forms.

Pianist, organist and composer Guus Janssen is a welcome guest in the Orgelpark. His series of new compositions is reason to dedicate a composer’s portrait to him. Janssen published a collection of new organ music from which a number of works will be played tonight.

At the Cello Biennale Asko|Schönberg will perform the world premiere of a new work by Guus Janssen. In his Concertino for 4 Cellos and Ensemble, Guus Janssen stacks four cello concertos on top of each other, beginning with unison. From this starting point, deviations occur in various ways, creating forms of polyphony.

Education Michael has a degree in English Literature from the State University of New York. Despite having no formal music education, he has an active international career in several aspects of the music business.

Celia Swart (1994, NL) is a new music composer, saxophone player and visual artist. Growing up playing saxophone and piano, she found her love for composing.

"Creativity is an unconscious act of insanity, in a burst of which the truth is born. No matter how beautiful or disgusting it may seem to people far from madness, its value is beyond doubt, both for the author and for those able to sense its invisible beauty. After all, gratitude for endless trials and suffering brings joy and blissful emptiness… Being shocked by music is about pain turning into beauty and getting under your skin, taking away your breath; about everything stopping to move. I want to be scratched inside by sound and experience the fleeting, invisible beauty." - Maxim Shalygin