Rozalie Hirs is an artist of extremes which she merges into herself in a seemingly effortless way. Her tutors were the opposites Louis Andriessen and Tristan Murail. In her composition process she combines complex analyses of frequencies and sound spectrums with intuitive decisions. She is not only a composer, but also a poet – four of her collections of poems have been published by Querido. The cross-pollination of these two talents has even resulted in a new genre: the ‘text piece’, which requires a symbiosis of a musical and textual way of listening. These multiple viewpoints broaden Hirs’ perspective and give her work depth.

Two years ago Hirs broke through with her orchestral work Roseherte (2007-2008). This year her music will be featured at November Music, where her latest CD Pulsars will be presented. Not long ago the premiere of her string quartet Zenit in Los Angeles was a great success, receiving a rave review in the L.A. Times. At the Holland Festival Percussion Group The Hague will premiere Hirs’ latest work Venus for metal percussion instruments - including the ‘sixxen’ designed by Xenakis - and electronic sounds from six loudspeakers placed around the audience.

Hirs’ inspiration for Venus came from the ‘Bach Pavilion’ by architect Zaha Hadid, that consists of a huge strip that spirals down from above and creates an inside space in the Gashouder. This image gave the composer the idea of the loop-shaped orbit the ‘star’ Venus traces in the sky, sometimes visible at the beginning of the night, sometimes only towards the morning, sometimes not at all. Similar loops can be heard in the spatial placing of the percussionists and the loudspeakers around the audience. The orbit of Venus can also be found in the titles of the three parts: Venus [Evening Star], [Invisible] and [Morning Star]. In Venus [Morning Star]  the sound spirals of the six sampled sixxens, which are all tuned differently, are a metaphor for the orbit of Venus as well as for waking up; the other two movements are based on the ever changing image of the starry sky.

Joep Stapel

Rozalie Hirs’ interests:
Music, bird song (of the wren, nightingale, canary), ring modulations, sinus waves, all types of noise, the cocktail party effect and other psycho-acoustic phenomena, the way the brain works.

Rozalie Hirs’ heroes and inspiration:
Hildegard von Bingen (as a composer, poet and scientist), Guillaume de Machaut (as a composer and poet), Iannis Xenakis (as a composer and thinker), Gérard Grisey, Tristan Murail, Louis Andriessen, Dick Raaijmakers (as a composer, poet and thinker), Emily Dickinson, Anne Carson (as a poet and scientist), Hans Faverey and Cees Nooteboom (as a novelist and poet).