The composer

As an eleven-year-old boy, I already knew what I wanted to be: Musician! With our band "Les Cheveux", we would become as famous as the Beatles (at least). It never came to that, but I did find my way in music in a different way. I became a composer. And composing is still my favourite thing to do.

Education

I followed classical training at the conservatories of Utrecht and Rotterdam, studying piano with Edith Lateiner-Grosz and composition with Ton de Leeuw, Theo Loevendie and Klaas de Vries. Meanwhile, I secretly played (because that was absolutely forbidden) in the symphonic rock group Finch.

Composing is still my favourite thing to do.

I did not feel at home with contemporary composed music. That is why after my studies I sought my way in the so-called applied music. Five Sesame Street LPs, among others, followed. And, between 1986 and 2002, forty productions for TeleacNOT (Dutch television).

In 2002 TeleacNOT had to economise. There was no more money for specially composed music. Because of the financial security that was lost then, I started teaching piano again. I noticed that the teaching material was rather one-sided. A lot of jazz, rags, blues, pop and classical music, but nothing in the field of so-called world music.

Piano music

It was time for a clever plan! I decided to write a number of piano books inspired by world music, publish them myself and try to sell them via my own website. 2005 saw the completion of the website. I had high expectations, but unfortunately they did not come true.

Success

Success, however, came from a totally unexpected source. Miroir, an organ piece from 1989, which I had also placed on the site, turned out to be sought after by organists from all over the world. Within a year it was sold out. The renowned publishing house Boosey & Hawkes published a new edition in 2007 and the piece has been recorded on CD 20 times by famous organists such as John Scott, Thomas Trotter and Kevin Bowyer.

NTR Podium made a television portrait about it, which you can watch here: NTR Podium, April 24th 2011.

Organ work

Since then, I have composed a lot for organ. Boosey & Hawkes published ‘Ride in a High-Speed Train, ‘Toccata Chromatica’ and ‘Interludes’ . Oxford University Press published ‘Fiducie’ and ‘Toccatina’. Organ-related commissions from abroad also followed: among others from Norway (a mass for Stavanger Cathedral) and England (Orgelbüchlein project). From home, the commission to write the obligatory piece for the 2nd round of the 1st International Organ Competition Breda followed.

And... those piano books turned out well after all. De Haske (a department of Hal Leonard) published them under the titles ‘Different Colours’ and ‘More Different Colours’.

You can find more about my work on www.adwammes.com. You can also listen to fragments of my work there. For this go to : https://www.adwammes.com/compositions