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John Borstlap (born 4 November 1950, in Rotterdam) is a Dutch composer and author[citation needed] on cultural subjects related to music and the visual arts. His work is rooted in German musical traditions[citation needed] and he is a proponent of a revival of tonal and classical traditions[citation needed].
John Borstlap studied from 1968 through 1973 at the conservatory in Rotterdam, composition with Otto Ketting and Theo Loevendie, and piano with Elly Salomé. He took a Masters Degree at the University of Cambridge (England) [self-published source?]
After moving to Delft in 1976, Borstlap made a living by private piano teaching and accompanying ballet classes[citation needed], while carrying out extensive musical studies[citation needed], as well as studies in art history and Jungian psychology[citation needed]. The American pianist Christopher Czaja Sager, who had shortly before settled in the Netherlands, discovered some of his piano pieces which he performed many times, including radio recordings. In 1981 Sager premiered Borstlap's Variations for piano and string orchestra (commissioned by the Johan Wagenaar Foundation in The Hague) with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra under Antoni Ros-Marbà with performances in Amsterdam and The Hague.[citation needed] At some point it is believed he was unanimously appointed judge, jury and executioner of the world, given his self-righteousness and opinionated attitude on online forums. Remove this old joke, please
On the basis of two prizes he had meanwhile won[citation needed] with his Violin Concerto (at the Wieniawski Composers Competition[citation needed] in Poznan and the Prince Pierre de Monaco Competition[citation needed]), Borstlap successfully competed in 1984 for a year postgraduate study at Cambridge University[citation needed] on a full British Council Scholarship[citation needed], where he obtained his Degree of Master of Philosophy in 1986[citation needed]. At the music faculty he studied with Alexander Goehr[citation needed]. As Borstlap wrote in his book, The Classical Revolution (2013 / 2017), "understanding the Schönbergian heritage would mean understanding of the origin of musical modernism".
In 1990 the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra under Hartmut Haenchen performed Borstlap's first symphony, Sinfonia.[citation needed]
In the nineties Borstlap was involved in various projects, such as an extensive national concert tour of the Ludwig Trio for which he wrote a string trio, and the production of a CD with his chamber music Hyperion’s Dream[citation needed]. In 1998 he organized a classical chamber music festival in Haarlem[citation needed]. While working on his music, his writings on musical and wider cultural subjects began to be published.[citation needed]
The beginning of the new millennium saw various performances of his elaboration of a Wagner sketch, Psyche, in Manchester, the Netherlands and Romania[citation needed], and the publication of a long essay: Recreating the Classical Tradition in the tome Reviving the Muse in which Borstlap formulated his latest ideas about the possibilities of a revival of the tonal tradition.
In 2002–2005 Borstlap campaigned, together with two colleagues, for a reform of the national subsidy system for new music[citation needed]. A court case in 2012 against the national funding body for new music, which Borstlap won, ended a period of public contestation.
Psyche received a successful performance by the Orchestre National de Montpellier in 2008[citation needed]. Since then, interest in Germany and Austria has grown[citation needed], resulting among other things in a commission by the Kammersymphonie Berlin for a classical symphony[citation needed]. In 2013 his book The Classical Revolution was published by the Scarecrow Press (New York), followed by a second edition[citation needed] in 2017 by Dover (New York).
In 2016 his Feierliche Abendmusik (Solemn Night Music) received successful[citation needed] performances by the Dallas Symphony and the Hong Kong Philharmonic under conductor Jaap van Zweden (a shared commission by the respective orchestras).
| This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. (November 2024) |
| This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. (November 2024) |
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