Saskia Lankhoorn
Biography Saskia Lankhoorn
Saskia Lankhoorn
The versatile Dutch pianist Saskia Lankhoorn is an active soloist and chamber musician in the contemporary music scene. Originally from Almere, the Netherlands, Saskia Lankhoorn received her Bachelors and Masters from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, under the guidance of Marcel Baudet and Naum Grubert, and also studied with Rudolf Jansen at the Académie de Villecroze in France. She won first prize in the National Prinses Christina Competition in 1998 and was a finalist in the Royal Concertgebouw’s 58th Vriendenkrans Competition in 2007, where her duo was honored with both the Press Prize and the Audience Award.
Her dedication to performing contemporary music dates from early age; 1995 marked her first appearance on national radio, playing Arnold Schönberg’s Sechs Kleine Klavierstücke. Saskia performs with the Asko|Schönberg ensemble and ELECTRA, and has premiered new works with her trans-Atlantic piano duo X88 with Canadian pianist Vicky Chow. She is a co-founder of Ensemble Klang, which has performed in festivals worldwide such as the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Cultural Olympiad UK 2012 and Sonic Festival in New York City
Her critically acclaimed solo concerts combine new art music with a strong performance and sound concept, and strive to immerse the audience in a new sound world. In spring 2014 she presented the solo program ‘Chords & Cables’, exploring the external sound possibilities of the instrument through combining the piano with electronic and prepared sounds. Saskia performs throughout the Netherlands in venues such as the Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam, as well as Symphony Space NY in the USA.
Autumn 2014 marks the release of ‘Dances & Canons,’ Saskia Lankhoorn’s first solo CD on ECM Records, featuring a suite of solo piano works by Kate Moore. In 2014-2015 Saskia embarks on an international CD release tour of ‘Dances & Canons,’ performing a solo show featuring a striking light and sound design.
Kate Moore
born 1979, is an Australian musician and composer of new music based in the Netherlands. Active on the international scene, Moore has had works performed by acclaimed ensembles including ASKO/ Schoenberg, the Bang On A Can All-Stars, the Grand Band, Stracc, the Amsterdam Cello Octet, Trio Scordatura, TwoSense, The Song Company, Ensemble Klang and De Ereprijs Orkest.
Her works have been performed in major festivals including Sonic Festival NYC (2011), Musica Sacra Maastricht (2011/ 2012), Klank en Kleur Festival Amsterdam (2011), the Sydney Film Festival (2011), Ecstatic Music festival NYC (2011), ISCM World Music Days (2010), Bang on a Can Marathon - World Financial Center (2010), MATA NYC (2009), ICWM (2008), MODART07 (2007), Bang on a Can Summer Festival (2007), International Gaudeamus Festival (2003/ 2011) and the Apeldoorn International Young Composer Meeting (2003). She has received commissions from the Australia Council for the Arts, Artpwr/ Carlsbad Festival of Music, Orgelpark Netherlands, FPK NL, the People's Commissioning Fund at Bang on a Can USA, Daniel McKay with the assistance of ArtsACT Australia, Orkest De Ereprijs Netherlands, Python Saxophone Quartet Netherlands and the 2003 Young Composer Meeting/International Masterclass Series Apeldoorn Netherlands.
In 2011 Moore was selected as the Hague Toptalent by Stichting Venancio. In 2010 she received a DeKomeet Cultural prize for her work Rain Project and won the Carlsbad Festival Composer Award commissioning her to write a new work for the Calder Quartet. In 2008 she was the recipient of the Doris Burnett Ford scholarship. In 2003 she was a prize-winner at the Apeldoorn Young Composer Meeting and was in 2001 the winner of the Franco-Australian Composition Competition for her string quartet Sketches of Stars. For four years running 1999-2002 she received the Howard Allen Memorial Prize for composition and during her undergraduate studies was awarded an honours scholarship and University Medal.
