A man wakes up on the air mattress he fell asleep on. He’s no longer on the beach – he drifts on the open sea. No land in sight. He encounters no-one, only his own fears, desires and deamons.

“De Man die afdreef op de Zee” tells the story of someone waking up in the middle ocean and is part of a three-part opera I’m writing together with Elea Bekkers. Written for chamber orchestra, one singer and an air mattress and with a playtime of around 20 minutes, this compact monodrama takes the audience on a journey through mental and phsysical heartship.

The following are excerpts from the piece, sung by Elea Bekkers.

In 2017 the Dutch Student Chamber Orchestra approached me for advice concerning an encore for their programme at the time. “Sure”, I said, “I’ll think about it for a bit”. Suggesting existing music is not really my style though, so I offered to write them a short piece that would fit their programme perfectly. “Formations” was born; an ode to the beautiful phenomenon of a flock of sterlings flying.

Listen to an excerpt of my first string quartet.

Performed by Dimitrijs, Sarah Lynn Huizing, Bas Ammerlaan and Berend Stumphius at the Utrecht Conservatory of Music, The Netherlands.

A soundtrack written for the short film “Identité” in which a perfume commercial slowly but surely turns into a porn scene. The film sheds light on the sexualisation of modern day perfume and fashion commercials.

“Blanket” is a short animated film about a blanket which is lost at a gas station, full of suspense and even some classic horror elements. Blanket was created by Nigh Lievaart (N-toons). Sem wrote the original soundtrack for this film.

The human psychology and its twists and turns have been the main inspiration for this piece. Joy, melancholy, struggle, triumph, many emotions have been adressed.

Laguna was commissioned by the Dutch Open Percussion Championships as the set piece for the entry class of the competition.

Two posters designed for the Utrecht Student Orchestra (USConcert).

These two posters portray a different side of Sem’s design work which could be called “fantasy realism”. In this style photo manipulation is order of the day instead of vector design.

These two posters were designed for the USConcert fall tour of 2016, and the spring tour of 2017.

A piece for mezzo-soprano and piano on a poem by Elea Bekkers, performed by Elea Bekkers (mezzo-soprano) and Anne-Maartje Lemereis (piano). This was the first piece Sem wrote together with Elea, a collaboration which eventually led to art-collective STAATSGREEP.

“A Modern Day Scheherazade”, performed by 10 very talented cellists from the HKU Utrecht Conservatory. As part of a school project we had 3 days to rehearse a full program and the results were absolutely terrific. Even though the piece is called Scheherazade, it doesn’t necessarily depict the literal story of a thousand and one nights. More so the contrast between fragility and power within the story, and how those two ultimates can ever so quickly turn into each other. All my thanks go out to the cellists and to Joel Hoffman for his coaching.

“Dusk” and “After Dusk” are two a capella pieces I wrote for the Utrechtse Studenten Cantorij (www.uscantorij.nl), a wonderful choir which offers young composers the chance to write new music for choir. The pieces were written for their concerts going by the name of “Twilight Zone”. After I wrote “Dusk”, they asked me to write a sequel, which became “After Dusk”. Whereas “Dusk” is about the relative peaceful side of twilight, “After Dusk” is a take on the darkness of night in a more harrowing and percussive way.