ABOUT
Mees Vervuurt (2000) is a composer and director based in Amsterdam. He graduated with a BA in ‘Music & Performance Art’ and ‘Composition’ from Utrecht Conservatory in 2022, and from the Alternative Conservatoire in London in 2024.
Mees’ works have been performed at stages and festivals such as O. Festival, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Tête-à-Tête Festival, Philharmonie de Luxembourg, Frascati Theatre, November Music, and Gaudeamus Festival. Currently, Mees works in the music, performance, and theatre fields in the Netherlands and abroad, creating site-specific music performances that move among genres, roles, and disciplines. His most recent works, A Myth for Piano (2024), VACUÜM (2023), STABAT MATER (2022), and Sometimes I Visualize Myself Back in the Belly of My Mother (2021), are characteristic for their interdisciplinary, ambiguous nature.
Mees creates poetic worlds in which the audience slowly disappears. These worlds are where sound, music, painting-like images, and movement serve almost sacred experiences. Music and movement flow into each other, revealing how inseparably connected they are. The space breathes, and the voice and body become part of the architecture. We sway along with the breath of the space, and the borders of our skin slowly seem to dissolve in the resonating tones. First, we try to understand the elusive, but then we surrender to the unknown. We let go and sail along in this universe of sound.
These performances are always site-sensitive, with Mees researching a combination of (live) music, movement, and space. The location is always one of the starting points for the performances he creates. It immediately questions why we are there and reflects on our being. Every reverb, echo, corner, and history is unique. We have to relate to the rules and laws of the space; we can’t ignore them.
Together with philosopher/dramaturg Roel Meijvis and manager Doortje van Duin, Mees forms Studio Vacuüm. Studio Vacuüm produces Mees’ works. Together, they always begin the creative process with critical thinking sessions about the themes, exploring the presence of the voice and body, and how that relates to the space. This philosophical and collaborative approach creates a strong substantive core from which new and surprising (musical) ideas arise. Mees believes this collaborative, critical thinking into art, the artistic process, and subjects makes the vision and work broader and stronger.
In 2025, Mees received the New Makers Grant from the Performing Arts Fund NL. He is artist in residence at O. Festival (Rotterdam, NL), and Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ (Amsterdam, NL). In 2025, Mees will be creating new works in residencies at Oerol Festival and IN SITU. In August, he will join the Voix Nouvelles Academy of Abbaye Royaumont.
Mees has composed for Lucilin Ensemble, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Peeping Tom (BE), and Het Nationale Theater (NL). He studied Composition with Ned McGowan and Wiek Hijmans at Musician 3.0 - Utrecht Conservatory and at the Alternative Conservatoire in London with Busha el-Turk & Catherine Kontz. Mees has also attended private masterclasses by James Dillon, Tarik O’Regan, and Milica Djordjevic.
Click here for CV.
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