Michel van der Aa

News

21 November 2025

On Saturday 22 November, Calefax Reed Quintet will premiere Michel van der Aa’s Link at Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ. Commissioned to mark Calefax’s 40th anniversary, this new work embodies collaboration on an unprecedented scale: 40 reed quintets worldwide have each performed a section of the piece over the past 40 days, with video documentation available at link.reedquintet.net.

Theory of Flames

Film opera (2024-2025)

From Dust

Virtual Reality Opera (2023-2024)

The Book of Water

Chamber music theatre (2021-2022)

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Film opera (2019-2020)

Violin Concerto

for solo violin and orchestra (2014)

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Chamber opera (2015-2016)

As a child, Michel van der Aa used to build labyrinths out of cardboard, complete with intriguing soundscapes. Today, he lets audiences enter alternative worlds in a different way: through his inventive musical, cinematic and digital creations. As a composer, director, and multimedia artist, he brings together various disciplines and leads the classical opera genre into new dimensions.

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