Ivo van Emmerik

Who is Ivo van Emmerik?

Ivo van Emmerik is a Dutch composer.

Ivo van Emmerik lives and works in Zwolle, where he teaches twentieth-century music at the Arnhem/Zwolle School of Music.

He studied composition with Robert Heppener at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and Brian Ferneyhough at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He attended summer courses in Middelburg given by Morton Feldman and John Cage that were of great importance to his musical development.

In 1989 he completed, with honors, his studies in The Hague. Since then, his work has been performed regularly in the Netherlands as well as in other European countries.

He wrote for such ensembles and soloists as the Nieuw Ensemble, orchestra 'de ereprijs', Percussiongroup The Hague, Trio Dolce, pianist Anthony de Mare and Ensemble Kontext Basel.

His composition Thought for three soloists and orchestra, written for the Residentie Orkest, was premiered during the 1991 Holland Festival by Het Trio as soloists, Hans Vonk and Alexandru Lascae conducting.

A close association with the Ives Ensemble resulted in a number of large scale works such as Documents pour servir de canevas a 45-minute cycle of six compositions for ensembles of between three to nine musicians and Birdstone a composition for two instrumental groups.