August 2022: Ik ben geen robot.

~ Niko

Hi everyone,

Just writing to share a small life update: that I now live in the Netherlands–in The Hague aka Den Haag aka ‘s-Gravenhage aka the International City of Peace and Justice. I have a home address and phone plan to prove it, though registering with the government here appears to take a long, long time. I’m pursuing an artist certificate at The Hague Conservatoire with Yannis Kyriakides, whose work I highly recommend.

I wrapped up my time in the States with a whirlwind tour of the Midwest. Before that, I had a very enjoyable residency at the Missouri International Composers Festival, where Alarm Will Sound premieres works by eight resident composers each year. It’s an honor to get to spend a few weeks learning and cajoling with fellow composers, and the cohort this year was a great selection. My piece is embedded below, and the concert as a whole dashes through an incredible breadth of styles.

I don’t have upcoming engagements to share, but I’ll leave you with a request to watch this site because many exciting things will happen soon. But of course by even suggesting I will be writing to you more is the kiss of death for this newsletter. Maybe next year!

Upcoming shows:

MORE SOON

Alarm Will Sound premieres eight new works by the resident composers of the 2022 Missouri International Composers Festival:

And in personal updates:

  • I got married!
  • We went on a honeymoon!
  • MICF 2022 was incredible!
  • We watched baseball, hung out with our families, and then packed into four suitcases to fly over the Atlantic!
I hold my wife Julia's hand as we prepare to cut the cake for our wedding. She's in a white wedding gown and I'm in a grey suit. The white cake is adorned with purple flowers and ribbons.
My wife Julia and I stand in front of the flowering American Basin, with bare mountains and thunderclouds in the distance
I stand in front of the sign for Kenosha Pass, elevation 10,000 ft, looking westward in a comical pose toward South Park, Colorado
The resident composers of the Missouri International Composers Festival pose in a line with resident composer Angelica Negrón. We are dressed formally.
The marquee of the Missouri Theater reads "ALARM WILL SOUND; EIGHT WORLD PREMIERES; SAT, JULY 30; MISSOURI THEATER" with a clear blue sky behind it. Some pixels are missing so the text is hard to read.
My dad, brother, friend, and I, sit at a restaurant table in the outfield of a baseball stadium. The others are smiling and I'm putting a large fried fishball in my mouth.
I walk away from the camera while pulling two large suitcases, one red and one blue. We are walking down the middle walkway of a busy Dutch street.

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2 thoughts on “August 2022: Ik ben geen robot.”

  1. There have been some of your pieces that I haven’t been able to listen to all the way through. This is one that I did complete. As Kelly said, “I’m pretty impressed.”

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