Twenty young composers each wrote a three-minute musical fragment for four equally young and talented musicians. Strung together, they create a lively picture of today’s musical practice, in which 20th–century taboos such as ‘tonality’ are no longer relevant. They freely flirt with tradition while taking the use of electronics for granted. Bowie Verschuuren provided the immersive film images that are part of an overall direction by Jos van Kan.

The participating composers were selected on the basis of musical expressiveness, artistic and cultural diversity and gender: Jan-Peter de Graaff, Mathilde Wantenaar, Karmit Fadael, Julian Schneemann, Celia Swart, Kordz, Bram Kortekaas, Rick van Veldhuizen, Boris Bezemer, Frieda Gustavs, Nils Davidse, Thomas van Dun, Primo Ish-Hurwitz, Nuno Lobo, Ramin Amin Tafreshi, Arjan Linker, Tijmen van Tol, Martín Mayo, Melle Heij and Doukus.

Watch the piece Losing by Celia Swart here and the piece Marimba nr. 5 by Alexandre Kordzaia (Kordz) here both written for Toonzetters. We spoke with Primo about the origin of Toonzetters and what assignment the composers were set to work on. Primo Ish-Hurwitz “I think the contrasts keep the performance fascinating, the more extreme the better.” Read the interview here.

Toonzetters is an initiative of Oranjewoud Festival and Stichting Pelgrimsreizen in co-production with November Music and Festival Dag in de Branding.