“Echoes” is my newest album release, featuring music from days long gone. These pieces, emerging from the past, come reflecting back on this record with memories and experiences of bygone times which are eerily relevant today.
The record features my String Quartet No. 1 (2016) and Distant Light (for treble voices, on a poem by Elea Bekkers, 2017) and a poem by Sara Teasdale bridging the gap between the pieces.
Read more about the album below.
Tracklist
1. String Quartet No. 1: I. Shock (Allegro agitato)
2. String Quartet No. 1: II. Denial (Largo Tranquillo, Furioso Doloroso)
3. String Quartet No. 1: III. I Should Have (Lento, Andante Semplice, Deciso con fuoco)
4. String Quartet No. 1: IV. There Will Come Soft Rains (Grave)
5. “There Will Come Soft Rains” (Poem by Sara Teasdale)
6. Distant Light (for treble voices, on a poem by Elea Bekkers)
Credits
Music Sem Hak
Performed by Flare Quartet (1-4), Eddie Fox (5), Veronika Akhmetchina, Marleen van Os, Channe Visscher, Viktoria Nikolova, Sylvia Boone, Hansje van Welbergen, Elea Bekkers (6)
Arrangement Hansje Welbergen (6)
Recording Sem Hak
Recorded at De Muzen, Veenendaal (1-4), De Waterspiegel, Amsterdam (6)
Mixing Ernst Coutinho (1-4), Sem Hak (5, 6)
Mastering Ernst Coutinho
Artwork and photography Sem Hak
Special thanks to Clemens Rosmulder, Muziekschool de Muzen, my dear parents and friends for their unwavering support and love and care.
Echoes
It is not uncommon for classical composers to see their work revived years or even centuries later. As a relatively young (and alive) composer, I was still surprised when Maartje Rosmulder of the Flare Quartet approached me about performing my first string quartet – written nearly eight years earlier. Like much new classical music, it had premiered and then disappeared into a drawer.
The piece, however, never left me. I wrote it as a cathartic response to a difficult period, and when I was approached in 2024, I felt both excitement and hesitation. I knew I wanted to revise it, but that meant reopening something I had long since closed. Having grown significantly as a composer since then, the process became one of careful refinement: strengthening details, extending ideas, and applying techniques I had developed over the years. Its core character, though, remained unchanged. I decided to leave the overwhelming majority of the piece intact.
The revival did not stop at a single performance. The Flare Quartet included the work in multiple programs, with performances at the Singer Laren and TivoliVredenburg, among others, and a performance scheduled at the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam.
The idea for an album emerged in 2025, when I decided to record the quartet with them. Although a single 20-minute work could stand alone, I was reminded of my earlier vocal piece Distant Light (2017), set to a text by Elea Bekkers and recorded with singers from NKK NXT, the talent development programme of the Netherlands Chamber Choir. Gradually, the idea took shape to release an album of these older works – music rooted in past emotions that continue to resonate in the present.
“Temmen” for String Orchestra
“Temmen voor Strijkorkest” (“Temmen” for string orchestra) is an adaptation of an earlier piece I wrote for string quartet. The piece describes the slow yet tedious process of bending wood under extreme heat and pressure as part of making a violin. The Dutch word “temmen” means “to tame” in English.
The piece is conducted by Bruno Vicente, and performed by musicians of the Codarts conservatory of music. The recording of the premiere was made on May 26th 2025 at Muziekwerf Rotterdam.
Cameras: Bart Vernhout, Massimiliano Vizzini
Video editing and audio: Bruno Vicente
Codarts Ad Hoc Orchestra
CONDUCTOR
Bruno Vicente
VIOLIN I
Verónica Costa
Gabriela Lopes
Miguel Ángel
Carla Sanuy
Isaura Laffeber
VIOLIN II
Francisca Azevedo
Sinem Ceylan
Marc Lukas Hornes
Maggie Burns
Martha Brouwer
VIOLA
Elena Franco
Oliver Vilu
Paultje
Thijs van der Linden
CELLO
Sari Saciri
Paula Lebón
Claudia Barrio Fernandez
DOUBLE BASS
Evanilda Veiga
Bowie Chau
Facultas (piano solo)
In 2023 I was approached by Concertgebouw de Vereeniging, the municipal concert hall of Nijmegen, to write a piece for solo piano to celebrate the centennial celebration of the Radboud University in Nijmegen. The piece was then gifted to the university by the concert hall to the university at the Dies Natalis celebrations. The piece was premiered by Seán Morgan Rooney at the Concertgebouw de Vereeniging with the King of The Netherlands in attendance. Later, the piece was performed again at the university itself.
The piece’s title, Facultas, translates to a myriad of words, amongst which: ability, opportunity and possibility, all words that resonate with the Radboud University and core values to many students pursuing an academic career. The piece translates those values to music through energetic changes throughout the musical structure: sudden tempo changes, a wide ambitus across the piano’s keyboard and wildly varying dynamics, all things that relate to an academic career.
Four Circumstances for Piano Trio
In June 2023 I was invited to take part in the Chamber Evolution program of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff (Canada) as a composer. There, in my very own composer hut in between the mountains and the pine-trees, I wrote Four Circumstances for Piano Trio (Piano Trio no. 1), which was then premiered by the Faust Trio and the Waldstein Trio, from France and Cyprus respectively.
Lifelines
“Lifelines”, my first studio-album, is live now! The album was successfully crowdfunded in 2021 and recorded with 18 musicians in 2022 including a full string orchestra and piano in the legendary Wisseloord Studios in Hilversum, The Netherlands. Now, in 2023, it’s finally ready to go out into the world.
The music on Lifelines portrays my personal view on life, how our own lives and those of others weave around each other, run parallel, tangle, untangle, start and end, just like threads of wool.
The release of the album was celebrated with a concert in my hometown of Utrecht in a beautifully intimate “werfkelder”, a typical cellar along the Utrecht city canals.
Temperature Music
For the ICOS science conference I wrote “Temperature Music”, a piece that translates the current climate crisis to music to better instill its severity in the listener.
Comissioned in 2019 its performance was delayed due to COVID but it finally found its stage in September of 2022, at the ICOS science conference in TivoliVredenburg Utrecht, The Netherlands. The piece was performed by musicians of the Utrechtsch Studenten Concert and was conducted by Sander Teepen. The piece was received to much enthusiasm both from visitors as the (climate) scientists who were present at large.
The piece goes through the history of climate change until the present day and is accompanied by an animation displaying several milestones in climate science as well as a graph displaying the increase in temperature over time. With every performance a new snippet of music is added according to the new climate data from the time between the last and the newest performance.
The piece is influenced by minimalism as to display the continuity of the climate crisis.
Stroom
Comissioned by “Symfonieorkest Nijmegen”, the symphonic orchestra of Nijmegen, The Netherlands, for their anniversary.
The piece called “Stroom”, or “Stream”, embodies the centuries-old connection between the river Waal and the city of Nijmegen. The piece was commissioned by Symfonieorkest Nijmegen to commemorate their 70-year anniversary. The orchestra is conducted by Frans-Aert Burghgraef. The piece combines natural sounds of the city and nature with sweeping harmonies and unforgiving rhythms, just like how our civilisation has to work together with nature, just like the city of Nijmegen does with the Waal river.
The piece is written for large symphonic orchestra with a duration of 05:30 minutes.
Oblivion
Dive into a hazy autumn morning.
I can’t get enough of my Lumix camera and the vintage Canon lens I use it with. Waking up one early November morning I found the world shrouded in fog – before I knew I rushed outside with my camera towards the local forest. The result is as mysterious as it is tranquil, almost meditative, video and soundtrack.
Distant Light
“Distant Light” is an animation created for the choir piece by the same title. Based on Illustrations by Paul van Gemen and on text by Elea Bekkers. Animation and composition by me. Arranged for high voices by Hansje van Welbergen.
Performed by Veronika Akhmetchina, Marleen van Os, Channe Visscher, Viktoria Nikolova, Sylvia Boone, Hansje van Welbergen and Elea Bekkers.
Text:
The trees seem green. The yellow leaves float feebly to the forest floor.
And as she took off she realised she could not fly.
Not even the sun now warmed the city that had killed her dreams.
The light is low and they could only fall.
Life in Winter
In february the city of Utrecht was suddenly treated to a thick blanket of snow, resulting in a winter wonderland. I took my amazing Panasonic Lumix S5 camera out, geared with a vintage canon lens (FD 50mm f/1.4) and took it all in through the viewfinder. My fingers froze over, but it was definitely worth it!
Soundtrack, videography and color grading by me.
