Margriet Ehlen (born 28 September 1943) is a Dutch poet, composer, conductor and educator of

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

Life and career

Ehlen was born in

Heerlen Heerlen (; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeast of the Netherlands. It is the third largest settlement proper in the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Measured as municipality, it is the f ...

and has composed for a large variety of instruments, yet is particularly active in composition for voice. These works extend from solo vocalists to choir music. Many of her compositions for voice set poetry to music. To this end she has utilized texts by

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, Wiel Kusters and Elly de Waard. She is also an accomplished and decorated poet herself. She studied composition with Gerard Kockelmans, Willem de Vries Robbé and Robert Heppener, piano with

Bart Berman Bart Berman (; born 29 December 1938) is a Dutch-Israeli pianist and composer, best known as an interpreter of Franz Schubert and 20th-century music. Career Bart Berman studied piano with Jaap Spaanderman at a predecessor of the Conservatorium ...

and Kees Steinroth and choir conducting with Jan Eelkema. She graduated with a degree in

music education Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as primary education, elementary or secondary education, secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a rese ...

from the

Maastricht Academy of Music The Maastricht Academy of Music, Dutch: ''Conservatorium Maastricht'', located in the city of Maastricht, is one of nine music academies in the Netherlands. The academy is a faculty of the Zuyd University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool Zuyd in ...

, and taught at teacher colleges in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; ; ; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital city, capital and largest city of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Maastricht is loca ...

and

Sittard Sittard (; ) is a city in the Netherlands, situated in the southernmost province of Limburg. The town is part of the municipality of Sittard-Geleen and has almost 37,500 inhabitants in 2016. In its east, Sittard borders the German municipal ...

. She has collected and analyzed the works of her former teacher, the Dutch composer Gerard Kockelmans, and written about the composer Jean Lambrechts. Many of her works were published by

Donemus Donemus (compounded from Documentatiecentrum nederlandse muziek) is the Dutch institute dealing with the documentation of contemporary music composed in the Netherlands. Originally a publisher of scores, between 1960 and 2000 Donemus also publish ...

, a

not-for-profit A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a Legal Entity, legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives. While not-for-profit organizations and Nonprofit organ ...

Dutch publishing house that promotes contemporary classical composers. Some others were published by the Rieks Sodenkamp publishing house in

Selected works

* 1979 ''Cyclus I'', five songs for voice and piano on poems Martin Boot * 1980 ''Three songs'' for voice and piano on texts by Martin Boot * 1984 ''Palimpseste'', for songs on poems by Wiel Kusters for mezzo-soprano and piano * 1988 ''And send the Rose to you'', ten songs for choir on texts by

and Elly de Waard * 1988 ''Wijfken, staat oppe'' for soprano and flute/alt-flute on a text by Anna Bijnstriptiek * 1990 ''Euridyce'', a cycle of seven songs for

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A bel ...

and

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

quartet on texts by

* 1990 ''Three small songs'' for flute and medium voice on poems by Hadewych Laugs * 1994 ''Dröm'' for soprano and flute on a text by Birgitta Buch * 1995 ''Prèsque Berceuse'' for soprano, flute and harpsichord or piano on a text by H. Leopold * 1995 ''Too few the mornings be'', for soprano, saxophone, horn and piano * 2003 ''For the Distant'', mini opera for soprano, 2 percussion orchestras, 2 dancers, video, and 2 choirs * 2006 ''Ignis Caritas'' for

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a musical keyboard, keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. The bells are Bellfounding, cast in Bell metal, bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and Musical tuning, tu ...

on a text by Margriet Ehlen * 2012 ''The Iron Lady of Maastricht'' on a text by Daan Doesborgh, counter tenor and saxophone

Awards

* 1997 Peter Kempkens Literature Award * 1995-1999 Veldeke awards (4 prizes)

References

External links

Margriet Ehlen
at the Society of Limburg's Composers

at Rhegie {{DEFAULTSORT:Ehlen, Margriet 1943 births Living people 20th-century Dutch classical composers 20th-century Dutch conductors (music) 20th-century Dutch women writers 20th-century Dutch women composers 21st-century Dutch classical composers 21st-century Dutch conductors (music) 21st-century women composers Composers for carillon Dutch women conductors (music) Dutch women classical composers Dutch women poets Maastricht Academy of Music alumni Musicians from Limburg (Netherlands) People from Heerlen