Musicatlas
Wim Henderickx (picture Diego Franssens 2009)
Wim Henderickx (by Miel Pieters 2011)
Cover CD 'Disappearing in Light' (2011) HERMESensemble , music by Wim Henderickx, HARMONIA MUNDI BENELUX
Music
Wim Henderickx is a contemporary composer who is making opera, music theatre, orchestral works and chamber music.
His scores are characterized by a solid structure, changing colourful sonorities and an intense expressive power. His fascination in ethnic, non-Western cultures has led to compositions influenced by Oriental music and phylosophy. A CD with his “3 Ragas” has been performed by the “Royal Phylharmonic Orchestra Flanders” with Grant Llewellyn as the conductor.
The CD “Confrontations”, for African and Western Percussion, with Gert François, percussion and Adama Dramé, djembé, was released by “World Cultural Centre Zuiderpershuis”, Antwerp.
The Flemish (Belgian) composer Wim Henderickx is still playing percussion instruments. He wrote a lot of music for percussion, but also played some of the scores himself (f.i. African Suite, for violin and percussion, 1992).
Between 1985 and 1995 he played the timpani in the “Beethoven Academie” Orchestra. His work Confrontations (2003), for African and Western percussion, is written for 10 percussionists. He travelled to Burkina Faso to study the score with the African players, who don’t read them, but who memorise the music. He also wrote one of his Ragas for percussion (and orchestra), Raga I.
In 2006 he wrote Alla Turca for 3 percussionists (derbuka, riq, bendir). The fascination for his instrument converges with his interest in ethnic, non-Western cultures.
Life
Wim Henderickx (born in 1962) studied composition as well as percussion at the Royal Flemish Conservatory of Music in Antwerp. Subsequently, he repeatedly took the “Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik” in Darmstadt. He also attended sonology classes at the IRCAM, Paris and at the Royal Conservatory, The Hague (NL). He teaches composition and musical analysis at the Conservatories of Antwerp and Amsterdam. Every year Musica (Belgium, Neerpelt) organises a summer composition workshop Wim Henderickx, for young people. At the moment he is composer in residence with Music Theatre Transparant. He composed chamber music, orchestral works and music theatre/opera (published by CeBeDeM, Brussels). He has been the recipient of numerous awards, both in Belgium and abroad.