Bram Van Camp (Antwerp °1980) created his first composition at the age of 9. He studied composition (Wim Henderickx' course) at the Royal Flemish Conservatory of Music in Antwerp. In 2003 this resulted in his certification as “Master of Music” for Composition, Music Analyses, Counterpoint and Fugue. The same year he also graduated with the certification of “Master of Music” for violin and the degree “Finality” in chamber music.
Bram Van Camp continued studying composition at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, following the composition course of Theo Loevendie. Additional classes from Daan Manneke, Klaas de Vries and Fabio Nieder were part of his agenda. This resulted in 2004 in acquiring the certification of "Bachelor of Music" cum laude for Composition.
Awards & Commissions
Being a composer, he was rewarded with several prizes: in 1999 he won the Aquarius Composition Contest with Rhapsody for violin and orchestra, which was premiered by Jerrold Rubenstein (violin) and the Beethoven Academy conducted by Jan Caeyers. In 2002 he was rewarded with the BAP prize (Belgian Artistic Promotion) issued by SABAM, for his Trio for clarinet, viola and piano (2000). In 2007 he was awarded with the Jeugd en Muziek Prijs voor Compositie (Youth & Music Award for Composition).
His compositions were commissioned by the "Festival of Flanders", "deSingel" (Antwerp) and Ars Musica, the Hermes Ensemble, the Nota Bene Ensemble, the Syrinx Ensemble and the Kandinsky String Quartet. Being a composer, he co-operated with ensembles such as the "Beethoven Academy" and "I Solisti del Vento". In 2007 his first symphony (Tetrahedron) was commissioned and premiered by the Royal Flanders Philharmonic (deFilharmonie). In 2008 he is "Composer in Residence" for the Hermes Ensemble, for which he will be writing a concerto for violin and ensemble.
Style
Bram Van Camp has always been fascinated by structured sounds and harmony. Creating his music he always strives for a style starting intuitively, where each note can be explained as being element of an own consequent system. Although most compositions are based on serial procedures, Van Camp focuses on a musical and organic sounding result. This way, his system of composing is not the objective on itself, yet it is applied as a means to result in natural sounding essence: the real organic music. For him each composition is a quest to rebuild and refresh previous compositions. However, this does not exclude important influences as these can be heard from other composers. His stylistic roots originate from Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinski and Alban Berg.
Performing Musician
Bram Van Camp studied violin at the Royal Flemish Conservatory of Music in Antwerp, taught by Vegard Nilsen and Kees Koelmans. In 2003 he graduated cum laude with the certification of "Master of Music" for violin and the degree "Finality" in chamber music.
Being a violinist, he attended many master classes and built a lot of experience in the orchestra
and chamber music ensembles.
His Sonata for violin and piano (2003) was
premiered by himself with Nikolaas Kende (piano). Strata
for 2 violins he premiered with baroque violinist Charlotte Vande Ginste.
In October 2003 he appeared as a soloist by joining the "Ensemble for New Music" (Conservatory of Amsterdam) for the premiere of the violin concerto by Henrik Hellstenius (Norway) for the ISCM World Music Days in Ljubljana (Slovenia). The concert was recorded by the Slovenian Radio.
Transcriptions
In his own repertoire he prefers twentieth century and contemporary music. Besides being a violinist, he developed a special affinity to the polyphonic music by Johann Sebastian Bach, whose three part "Ricercar" from The Musical Offering he reworked for solo violin (2003). This became his first attempt for a much bigger project, considered to be a "work in progress", having the title The Well-Tempered Violin: a collection of etudes for violinists as preparation for the polyphonic works for solo violin composed by Bach. This collection is based on the preludes and fugues from the "Well-Tempered Clavier".
His affinity to the violin repertoire, being extremely close to him, also inspired him to another work in progress: writing cadenzas for classical concertos composed by Mozart and Haydn.
