Maestro Arts signs percussionist Dominique Vleeshouwers
Maestro Arts is delighted to announce the signing of Dominique Vleeshouwers, a prize-winning Dutch percussionist who combines solo performance with innovative projects, working with collaborators including dancers, artists and writers, and moving between classical, world and new music.
Rachel van Walsum said: ‘We are very excited to be working with Dominique. Not only is he a superb musician and a dazzling percussionist, but he is also a searching and creative artist who is passionate about working across art forms and communicating his love of music. In these respects, he represents the core values of Maestro Arts and what we have always considered to be the future of music and cultural activity. He’s also highly intelligent and switched on to the demands of digital media, making him a truly 21st-century musician and a delight to work with.’
Dominique said: ‘Percussion is one of the fastest developing instruments – as a community we keep finding new solutions and innovations. The percussive language moves fluidly between different music styles and lends itself to be a bridge between different art forms and cultures. I love to keep exploring and pushing my own boundaries as an artist and Maestro Arts shares this broad vision. I’m extremely excited to work together with Rachel and the rest of the team to bring my art and my instrument closer to audiences.’
Dominique decided to become a percussionist at the age of six, as he explains in this interview. He went on to study at Amsterdam Conservatoire and won several competitions, including being the first percussionist to win the Dutch Music Prize in 2020, and sweeping the board with the first, press and audience prizes at the 2014 TROMP international percussion competition.
He plays around a hundred different percussion instruments and has performed with orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tokyo Sinfonietta, Asko||Schönberg ensemble, Netherlands Chamber and Philharmonic Orchestras and worked with chamber musicians including the Pavel Haas Quartet, Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble and Netherlands Wind Ensemble.
Dominique is ambitious about extending the repertoire for percussion and has performed several world premieres, including works by Wim Henderickx and Thomas van Dun, and has started writing his own compositions.
In order to facilitate his cross-arts work, in 2014 he formed production company Combined Creatives. Recent projects have included Marching & Breakin’, a crossover with breakdancers; Six Japanese Gardens, working with painter Marcel van Hoef and performing the music of Kaija Saariaho; and Visiting Beethoven, using video and text to introduce the composer’s works to new audiences. He also offers percussion tuition through his digital channels and has given masterclasses around the world.
Future projects include the world premieres of A new dawn: for new tomorrows, an immersive performance including dance and visuals, with Redo and Binkbeats; and a new composition by Samuel Carl Adams. He is currently researching a series exploring the use of drumming across different cultures, building on a previous visit to Senegal to work with street musicians; and a new work for percussion and orchestra with composer Daniel Wohl, exploring the use of live sampling of an orchestra, examining the role that computers play in our lives.
If you would like to find out more about Dominique, please contact Rachel van Walsum.
Coming up:
28 December 2021 Tapdance Concerto + other works – Bern Synfoniker
13 March 2022 A new dawn: for new tomorrows (world premiere) – Tivoli|Vredenburg, Utrecht
19 March 2022 A new dawn: for new tomorrows – Zurich
4 April 2022 Bartók Sonata for two pianos – Assen
7 April 2022 Playground Album (world premiere) – STRP Festival, Eindhoven
8 April 2022 Bartók Sonata for two pianos – Haarlem
28 April 2022 Samuel Carl Adams (world premiere) – Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
