Miranda Driessen

In her childhood Miranda Driessen dreamed of becoming an explorer until one day a teacher told her she had to consider another career since every corner of the earth already had been discovered. After the initial shock of this message, she decided this wouldn't stop her. For her there was still a whole universe to discover.
Her career as a composer started off late entering the Rotterdam Conservatory at 35, meanwhile working as a music educator and singer. From her infinite curiosity her desire to dive into various musical styles, -cultures and -histories results in a great diversity of works containing unexpected connections combining western- and non-western instruments, alternative tuning systems, historical instruments, soundsculptures and -installations. For every new work she sets off on a journey exploring new worlds. With all these elements she creates music that invites the listener to join her on this voyage, discovering immersive experiences from wordless stories on humankind.
In 2018 she produced her first music-theatre work Koerikoeloem in which she combined contemporary poetry by Tjitske Jansen, environmental soundsculptures from Jan Heinke and Steffen Hartmann with her fascination for Mozarabic neumes from Medieval Spain.
Her work has been performed throughout the EU by outstanding ensembles such as the Asko ensemble, Doelen ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Orkest De Ereprijs, and the Kokoro ensemble. She worked closely together with soloists like Gerrie de Vries, Makiko Goto, Kaoru Iwamura, Naomi Sato, Katerina Konstantourou, Maja Mirocha, Ere Lievonen and Sarah Jeffery.
Miranda Driessen is a member of the Dutch composers association Nieuw Geneco. In recent years her work has been supported by the Dutch Foundation for the Performing Arts.