Activity As A Composer
In 1993, with over 18 years as performer, researcher and professor in early music, Hendrik Bouman embarked on the composition of new music in baroque and classical idioms according to the standards of the 17th & 18th century. This was for him a natural development of the ongoing revival of baroque music. In creating his new period style compositions, he employs various European national idioms and their many typical forms such as the sonata, concerto, ouverture and fugue. He first played his contemporary 'baroque' music in South Africa in January 1994 and his harpsichord solos were first recorded by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in December that year.
He has composed over 100 works in 17th and 18th Century style for harpsichord; piano; clavichord; organ; violin solo; viola solo; flute solo; recorder solo cello solo; as well as quartets; trios; duets; sonatas; ouvertures; concerto grossos; harpsichord concertos; violin concerto; recorder concerto; flute concerto; oboe concerto; cello concerto; music for baroque theatre and a classical symphony.
Concerts dedicated to his music have been broadcast by CBC Toronto, Halifax, Moncton, ATV and CBCTV Maritimes, DT-Danish National Radio and Radio France/France Musiques. His Menuet du Matin dedicated to HRH Prince Willem Alexander of the Netherlands was chosen as a theme of Radio Canada's Les Bonheurs de Sophie in 1998, and CBC TV News broadcast his composition HRH Princess Diana's Ground, as tribute on September 1, 1997. His two CDs of solo compositions for harpsichord and piano dedicated to his wife Anna, Little Notebook for Anna I & II, were released in 1998 and distributed to radio-broadcasters worldwide by the SOCAN foundation (Canadian composers).
He has premiered over 2/3 of his compositions in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, England, Canada, India and South Africa and his works have also been performed in Italy, Germany and Sweden. He has premiered his orchestral and chamber music with his ensembles Concerto Felice, Baroque SaMuse and The Baroque Muse which he founded in 2009. He has performed his works also in solo recitals, in trio and in duo with flutists Brian Berryman and Grégoire Jeay; recorder players Heiko ter Schegget, Matthias Maute, Sophie Larivière, and Ambikaprasad Mallik; oboist Matthew Jennejohn; violinists Hajo Bäss, and Simon Standage; viol player Susie Napper; cellists Tormod Dalen and Ifan Williams. Hajo Bäss has premiered the Fantaisie pour violon seul, which was composed for him in 1999. Bouman premiered with Simon Standage the "Classical Sonate for Violin and Piano in Bflat major" which he composed for him in 2008. Bouman composed the music (which he directed from the harpsichord) for a production of Molière's Le Malade Imaginaire in Auroville, India in 2006. In March 2009 he inaugurated his concert series Baroque by the Sea, Eastbourne in the United Kingdom. In Brighton, Sussex, in the United Kingdom in November 2009 he premiered with his ensemble The Baroque Muse his compositions "Harpsichord Concerto in D major" - soloist Hendrik Bouman, "Flute Concerto in E minor" - soloist and dedicatee Grégoire Jeay, "Violin Concerto in D major" - soloist and dedicatee Simon Standage, "Cello Concerto in A minor" - soloist Tormod Dalen, and "Recorder Concerto in C major" - soloist Heiko ter Schegget. In April 2011 the CD, "5 Baroque Concertos for Anna", of Bouman's compositions, recorded by The Baroque Muse under Bouman's direction at Firle Place in Sussex UK, was released on Arya.
In August 2011 Hendrik Bouman directed members of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century in the premiere of his Concerto Grosso in G major - "La Festa di Lucia" which was commissioned to honour the Dutch violinist, Lucy van Dael, co-founder and formerly, leader of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Professor at the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.
Hendrik Bouman is the first renowned composer/performer of baroque music in two centuries to design and build the harpsichords on which he plays in concerts and recordings.
He is a member of the British Harpsichord Society, the British Clavichord Society, SACEM (France), ADAMI (France), and SPEDIDAM (France) as well as being a member of the period composers' guild, Vox Saeculorum.
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