Composer Bram Kortekaas (Amsterdam, 1989) studied composition at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and political science at the University of Amsterdam and University of Copenhagen. In his compositions, he is inspired by current musical developments as well as social issues. For instance in Voetnoten bij de menselijke komedie: Mijmeringen van Arnon Grunberg, commissioned by NTR ZaterdagMatinee, he put Arnon Grunberg’s columns in de Volkskrant to music. Both the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Residentie Orkest performed this work with the Netherlands Radio Choir. Commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Kortekaas wrote Leonard Bernstein, Security Matter – C, a work for wind quintet and singer Carina Vinke about the political past of the American composer Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990).

Kortekaas’ orchestral music is characterised by its expressive characteristics and attention to orchestration. In 2015, he took the first prize in the Euregio Youth Orchestra Composition Contest with the composition The Pillars of Creation, inspired by the iconic photo from the Hubble telescope of the same name. The composition The Dreamcatcher, commissioned by the Netherlands Student Orchestra, was one of two Dutch entries at The International Rostrum of Composers 2018. He has written other orchestral works commissioned by the Noordhollands Jeugdorkest, the Ricciotti Ensemble, the VU Orchestra, and the Nederlands Studenten Kamerorkest (Nesko). Foreign Body, written for the VU Orchestra, was on the music stand in 2014 during the Järvi International Academy for Conductors in Estonia. The Netherlands Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (December 2020) and the NJO (January 2021), among others, will be premiering new work by Kortekaas throughout the 2020/2021 season.