Composer Joël Bons was born in Amsterdam. He studied guitar and composition in Amsterdam, Siena and Freiburg with Robert Heppener, Franco Donatoni and Brian Ferneyhough, but his musical background is diverse, influenced by The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa and by his parents' world music record collection.

His music has been performed by international top soloists, ensembles and orchestras. In 2016 the premiere of the large scale Nomaden was a highlight at festivals such as the Venice Biennale and Cello Biennale Amsterdam. Written for master cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and the intercultural Atlas Ensemble this work won the 2019 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. The Award is often referred to as the ‘Nobel Prize of music’. Nomaden is released on BIS Records. 

Recent commissions include Thirty Situations for the Nieuw Ensemble, soprano, trombone, jazz drums, electric guitar and electronics and the Cello concerto Trailblazer – commissioned and performed by cellist Lidy Blijdorp and the Residentie Orkest. For the Oranjewoud Festival Joël Bons composed two series of works for the intercultural Atlas Ensemble: 283 Strings (2023) and 132 Guan (2024). Presently he is working on a large scale work for the Atlas Orchestra, to be premiered on 21 June 2025 at the Holland Festival/Zaterdagmatinee in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

Joël Bons co-founded the Nieuw Ensemble, was for ten years the group’s guitarist and then became its artistic director responsible for virtually all programming. He introduced a new generation of Chinese composers in 1991 to western audiences, which marked the international breakthrough of new Chinese music. In 1998 Bons and the Nieuw Ensemble were awarded the Cultuurfonds Musicprize for their ‘markedly lively and adventurous programming which can be described as ground breaking, both in the literal and figurative senses of the word’. 

In 2002 Bons founded the Atlas Ensemble, a unique company uniting musicians from China, Japan, Korea, India, Iran, Syria, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaidjan, Turkey and Europe. For his work with the Atlas Ensemble Joël Bons was granted the prestigious Amsterdam Prize for the Arts 2005. The same year he became professor of composition at the Conservatory of Amsterdam where he organized a yearly Atlas Academy, a laboratory for the creation of intercultural music.

Photo: Daniël Bons