DCV 305 – Elmer Schönberger: Gezien Hercules Segers

"Writer, composer, musicologist" is the most concise biographical summary Elmer Schönberger is inclined to assign himself, although the order has the habit of changing.

Some friendships grow gradually, ours I remember as one that was immediately there in full force,’ Elmer Schönberger writes in Keten & stompen about the many years he and Louis Andriessen played the piano, engaged in conversation, played cards, drank whiskey, gossiped, wrote each other letters and commented on each other’s work.

In ‘Keten en Stompen’, Elmer Schönberger talks about Louis Andriessen, and about their friendship, about Stravinsky, about playing the piano together (stumping), about distant travels, about life, death, good notes and, preferably, bad notes, about drinking whiskey and playing cards (chain ).

"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

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.