It feels as if I have shaken off some heavy chains, Richard Ayres once stated. Now I am capable  of using consonance, dissonance, melody, composition, elephants, clouds, snow balls, whatever from any era and when necessary, bordered only by the restrictions of my own imagination.

Ayres (1965) is an English composer who has been working and living in the Netherlands since September 1989. He has studied composition, electronic music and trombone, with, among others, Morton Feldman in Darmstadt and Louis Andriessen in The Hague, where Ayres himself has been employed  since 2004 as composition professor at the Royal Conservatory. In 1994, he won the Gaudeamus Prize for composition, in 1999, he received a recommendation from the UNESCO/IMC International Rostrum of Composers and in 2003 he was recipient of the prestigious Matthijs Vermeulen Prize.  His No. 44 (Diary Pieces) has been nominated for the Buma Toonzetters Prize as best work of 2009,  and will be performed by the ensemble De Ereprijs during Toonzetters 2010 (28-29 August in the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ).

Ayres' music, however experimental, is always a pleasure to listen to, and as the above quotation beholds humour is also nearby.  He frequently seeks the border where the known and unknown dissolve, where they are paradoxical and he experiments with what happens when apparent incompatible musics are placed alongside each other.

Hence Ayres has worked for many years on a series of `NONcerto' s, in which - the name says it all - the relationship between soloist and orchestra is mixed up in all kinds of ways . Soon his No.30, NONcerto for orchestra, violoncello and soprano (2001/2003) will receive its long-awaited Dutch premiere. Ayres' approach to this work - a sort of  frontal but also exuberant collision of intentions – refers at times to Alfred Schnittke, to whom on of the other NONcerto' s has been dedicated. No.30 will be performed on April 29, 2010 in Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn by the Radio Chamber Philharmonic under the direction of Alejo Perez.


Joep Stapel

Richard Ayres' interests:
My daughter. composing, my faithful girlfriend, snow as long as it has not reached the ground, my job at the conservatory, the Rhine river, walking.

Richard Ayres' inspiration:
All the films by Terry Gilliam, Guy Maddin, Brothers Quay, Fellini, Charley Bowers, Charlie Chaplin, Aleksander Sokurov, Jan Svankmajer, Yuri Norstein and Dr. Arnold Fank. Early films with Mickey Mouse. South Park, Kenny Everett...just too many to name.

Music: almost everything by Purcell, Rameau and Janacek. Orchestral music by Debussy and Messiaen. Operas by Wagner, Verdi, Debussy, Gerald Barry, Micha Hamel. Works by van Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Händel and numerous other music in all possible genres. Much too much to name here.

Plenty of books on practically everything.........from the Bible to 'Monster-clit VI'.