Bart Spaan: Biography

Bart Spaan (born 1963) studied musicology and history at the Universities of Nijmegen and Amsterdam. In the early eighties he played in the Dutch experimental rock group Bazooka. As a result of his musical studies he became interested in contemporary classical music, but he never lost his affinity with modern pop music. In 1992, for example, he worked together with the formation Gore.

After graduating he made contemporary music programmes for the radio station De Concertzender. He also started to compose himself. Later he took private composition lessons from Daan Manneke and in 1999 he took part in the International Young Composers Meeting in Apeldoorn. 

At first he mainly wrote piano works, but in recent years he also composed for ensembles, such as The Barton Workshop and Ensemble ’88. His electro-acoustic compositions were performed at the Gergiev Festival. In 2010 another electro-acoustic piece - Sur place: Interior - was selected by the Dutch ISCM section to submit for the ISCM World New Music Days 2011.

For a long time he wrote compositions for piano and tape that were inspired by the works of the Spanish painter Alberto Reguera. Five of these works have been included on his CD Silencios, which came out on the Erasmus label in 2001. In 2009 his new solo CD Ellips was released by the Etcetera label. This cd includes the five part piano cycle Kringen, written for the Dutch pianist Ralph van Raat. In 2010 Kringen was nominated for the Buma Toonzetters prize. 

Photo: Co Broerse.