Merlijn Twaalfhoven

Merlijn Twaalfhoven is a Dutch composer, speaker, writer, and designer of music projects. In his works he explores latitude, imagination, and a role for art in social issues such as inequality, and the transition to a sustainable society. He has designed numerous unconventional music and theater projects and has worked in conflict areas and refugee camps. He also wrote the Dutch book: "Het is aan ons" (it's up to us), Why We Need the Artist Within to Save the World. (Atlas Contact, 2020). Early life and career Twaalfhoven was born and grew up in Wapserveen, the son of musical parents. As a high school student, he participated in the art competition for Dutch youth "Kunstbende", performing his own compositions. He remains a member of Kunstbende Originals to this day. He also performed at the Shakespeare Theater in Diever. In 1996, he toured Bosnia as a violist with the Ricciotti Ensemble, shortly after the Balkan War. The orchestra was accompanied by Dutch IFOR soldiers and performed for orphans, among others. Twaalfhoven studied viola and composition (under Daan Manneke) at the Amsterdam Conservatory, with a specific interest in improvisation, ethnomusicology, and contemporary music with South Indian techniques. While still at the conservatory, he designed and organized concerts in unusual locations, often in collaboration with actors and dancers. For his graduation project, he wrote an interactive essay on Japanese aesthetics, titled "De Veelte", and organised a major event in the former ADM shipyard. Between 2004 and 2008, he was a lecturer at ArtEZ University of the Arts, where, under the class of PopKunst, he conducted research into how contemporary art can reach a broad audience without artistic concessions. He is known for large-scale multidisciplinary music projects that often involve dancers, visual artists, amateur musicians, and children.