“Composing is not about reaching an end point, but about staying in motion. Each piece is a perfect, imperfect snapshot in time.”
Boris Bezemer
Boris Bezemer is a composer based in Amsterdam whose work spans orchestral and ensemble music, electronics, and interdisciplinary collaborations. His music combines fixed notation with open scores, and is performed internationally, with most performances in Europe.
The opera Bring Me a Storm was commissioned by the Dutch National Opera; other collaborations include Orgelpark, Ensemble Resilience, and Boyan Montero. Since 2016, Boris has served as a member of the Conlon Collective, an organisation furthering the use of digitised acoustic musical instruments. He studied at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and Utrecht University of the Arts, with an exchange at the University of Huddersfield.
On 12 September, Boris’s new piece Surrounding, for orchestra and Dolby Atmos soundtrack, will premiere at Gaudeamus Muziekweek with Orkest de Ereprijs, in collaboration with Dyane Donck Company. On the same day, another new piece premieres in Amsterdam with pianist Paolo Gorini and visual artist Boyan Montero. Ahead of these performances, Patrick Ellis spoke with Boris about cinematic surround sound, player pianos, and composition as performance…
.
Patrick/PRXLUDES: What does composing mean to you?
Boris Bezemer: For me, composing is performing — and like performing, I see it as an ongoing practice. It’s not about reaching an end point, but about staying in motion. Each piece is a perfect, imperfect snapshot in time, a moment in an infinite process.
I also see composing as creating life. I start from an idea or an interest, and puzzle until something stands on its own. If that happens, I feel responsible for keeping it alive beyond a first performance, letting it blossom and mature.
How do you keep a piece alive and let it mature?
In many ways. Sometimes it means revising a piece, making an arrangement, or creating a related work. Opportunities come in all shapes and sizes, and each lets the music grow. A composition written for one instrumentation might be arranged for another. A set of sound samples from one work can be used to create something totally different.
Sometimes I “perform” a piece into a detailed orchestral score, like painting one complete image of it. Other times, that same music might take a more open form, for example with improvised parts. Each score is another way of realising an underlying piece.
.
You compared a score to a painting — could you expand on that?
A fixed score is one performance, ready to be presented in sound. Otherwise my compositions exist as a core — a bundle of essential elements that might be harmony, rhythm, time structures, texture, melody, algorithms, lyrics, or pure intention. The rest is open, depending on the situation or the mood of the performance.
How do you decide which elements of a piece are essential, and which are not?
The essential ones usually come first. And without them, everything falls apart.
.
You mentioned improvised parts. How do you work with structure and freedom in your music?
Yes, the fixed and the open. I think it’s the ultimate composer question: what do you specify, and what don’t you? An exciting part of live music for me is that a performer is present as they are telling their story. The right amount of specificity in a composition plays a crucial part in facilitating this.
When there’s less rehearsal time, a more fixed score can be practical. But the more time I spend with performers, the better I can communicate the essence of a piece, the less I have to spell out in the score, the less “painting” I have to do beforehand, and the more can be done live.
Speaking about doing more live: your piece ‘Infinity’ premiered earlier this year at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. Could you tell me more about that work?
‘Infinity’ is a composition I play on the Disklavier: a digital player piano that can be controlled by computer in real time. This possibility inspired me to create a piece that’s truly played live on the instrument.
I composed it in a rough form made of sections, sometimes felt as moments, sometimes as spaces. In live performance I know what to do, but it’s up to me how to do it. These sections follow each other like in a song, where verses, choruses, and B-sections repeat or are reshuffled.
How do you play the Disklavier?
It’s like the electric surface of a pond that ripples when touched. I wrote a computer program that generates ripples of what I play on the piano. These extra notes are played on the piano — as though by a ghost pianist.
It sounds as though you are treating the player piano as a kind of remote-controlled audio device?
Not remotely — I’m right there. And it’s not audio from a loudspeaker, but sound from vibrating piano strings. What changes everything is that the Disklavier can be digitally controlled in real time — unlike the traditional player piano, which only plays back fixed music punched into a paper roll. That’s why I’m interested in playing music that only a machine can play — but still live, by touching the piano keys.
.
You’re currently working towards a premiere with Orkest de Ereprijs during Gaudeamus Muziekweek 2025. How is the piece taking shape?
It’s a special concert — in cinemas, in the dark, using the built-in Dolby Atmos surround sound system. My piece is for live orchestra and fixed soundtrack. Moodwise, it changes between scattered stillness and moments of drive. The musicians are placed around the audience, just like the loudspeakers, creating an inside-out orchestral anatomy.
How does a cinema sound system compare to a regular stereo setup in a concert hall or music venue — what’s the difference?
Dolby Atmos has loudspeakers all around you, even above you, so you are fully immersed, hearing sound from every direction. Because of the high-quality speaker system and the relatively dry acoustics compared to a concert hall, the sound reaches your ears directly and transparently. There is a studio-like almost clinical dimension to working with Atmos, which I find inspiring, because I love shaping sounds to the smallest detail — as though they are little bugs or insects. You can even hear the soft click of how a sine wave starts.
You also have the live players with Orkest de Ereprijs — what is the relationship between the electronics and the live ensemble?
The acoustic and electronic parts meet in friction — they rub, gel, are swallowed, and resurface. I embrace their confrontation rather than blending them into one. That tension still surprises me.
Normally, in pieces with electronics, you might amplify the musicians through the same speakers to make their sound blend with the electronics. But with Atmos, that’s not possible — all you can do is press “play” and “pause” on the audio file.
.
On the same day as the premiere of ‘Surrounding’ with Orkest de Ereprijs, you also present a new piece with pianist Paolo Gorini and visual artist Boyan Montero. Can you tell me about that work?
The piece is called ‘A United Group Raises a Mountain’. I’ve worked with Paolo Gorini and Boyan Montero many times before. For this piece, I wanted to create something still and powerful. Boyan is making a drawing that will be presented together with the live piano music.
What inspires you to compose?
I’m inspired by life, people, stories, feelings, art, and music. For example, how Bob Dylan keeps his songs alive by performing them differently through the years, and how Bach’s scores survive different expressions and phrasings. I love Conlon Nancarrow’s work too, which in a way feels opposite: everything is in the score and the punched paper roll.
Music theatre and visual art also inspire me. For example, Thanasis Deligiannis’s mix of composition, research, documentary, rehearsal, and collage, or Boyan Montero’s flux of writing, drawing, installation, and performance. In both their work, an inspiring sense of collectivity and collaboration shines through.
.
–
Three of Boris’s pieces will premiere on 12 September 2025 at Muze van Zuid (Amsterdam) and Gaudeamus (Utrecht) – more information and tickets:
- ‘Surrounding’, Orkest de Ereprijs and Dyane Donck Company, Gaudeamus, Utrecht
- ‘A United Group Raises a Mountain’, with Paolo Gorini and Boyan Montero, Muze van Zuid, Amsterdam
Learn more about Boris’s practice:
Header photo by Jonne Lucia
