Paul M. van Brugge, Composer
Paul M. van Brugge, born in Rotterdam, Holland, studied composing and arranging at the Rotterdam Conservatoire with (a.o) Klaas de Vries and Bob Brookmeyer. He graduated having composed and arranged concert music and music for theatre plays, modern dance and corporate advertising films. As a musician (piano) in his own right he toured with many jazz ensembles, composing and arranging the music accordingly.
In 1986, van Brugge met film director Alejandro Agresti who invited him to write the score to his second feature film Love is a Fat Woman (1987, Press-Award Dutch Film Festival). Since then they have been working together on the scores for most of Agresti's feature films including Boda Secreta (Secret Wedding,1989 Best Film-Award Dutch Film Festival), Buenos Aires Vice Versa (1996, Best Film-Award San Sebastian) and Valentin (2002 Best Director Dutch Film Festival).
Van Brugge also composed film scores for many other film directors, amongst them Otakar Votocek; Wings of Fame (1991 Best Film-Award Karlyvo-Vary), Esmée Lammers; Long live the Queen (1995 Best Film-Award Dutch Film Festival), Danniel Danniel; Winter '89 (1998); Van Brugge also produced film scores for Gabriël Axel; Amled (1994) and Peter Greenaway; The Baby of Macon (1995).
Since 1990, van Brugge’s composing includes writing contemporary music, a.o. Stroom concert for 8 celli and bass clarinet (1993, selected as opening-concert at the International Gaudeamus Concours 1994); Bacchanal for 16 musicians (1996); Distancias for solo trumpet (2000); Grafdans for Holland Symfonia and the Amsterdam Klezmer Band (2003), and Song of Cassandra, his first chamber opera (2005). He composed for modern-jazz ensembles, a.o. I Told You for jazzquartet, (1995 in honour of the Berklee Music College 50th Anniversary Memorial Concert, Boston), Espacios (2001, commissioned by NPS radio for the Dutch Metropole Orchestra) and ‘Minatures of Misdemeanour’ (2006, commissioned by Fonds voor de Scheppende toonkunst and performed by the Doelen Ensemble). Most recently, Fractions of Phobiae (2006 commissioned by the Sofia Music Festival) and Double concerto for Piano and Trumpet (2007, commissioned by Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst and performed by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra) had successful performances. Presently van Brugge is finishing his new Double Concerto for Violin and Viola, to be performed by Igor and Vesna Gruppman and the Orchestra at Temple Church in Salt Lake City in October 2010.
Van Brugge was nominated “Best Composer” by the Dutch film music magazine Score in 2001. He was nominated for a Golden Calf in Best Music category for his Go West score in 2003 and won the Condor de Plata Best Music 2004 in Argentina for his Valentin score and the Golden Calf Best Music 2005 for his score of Alias Kurban Said. He has given several master classes in film music at the Dutch Film & Television Academy, DoxBarcelona, Documenta Madrid and the Danish Film institute. He was artistic director of the Jazz International Rotterdam Festival 2008, and recently became member of the board of Buma/Stemra, the Dutch author rights organization. Since 1997 he has taught composing and arranging at the Codarts Rotterdam Conservatoire.
