Travel through time, in your mind, guided by music. Beginning with anonymous dance music from the Middle Ages, we slowly journey through the centuries until we arrive in the present with an improvisation featuring live electronics.
In this programme, organist Laurens de Man, together with composer and performer Marnix Vinkenborg, connects the present with the past, creating a deeply atmospheric experience. On a time-travel journey through many centuries of organ literature, combined with improvisation and live electronics, the unique 31-tone organ comes to life in a truly special way. Laurens de Man and Marnix Vinkenborg previously collaborated in November 2019 for a concert at the Janskerk in Utrecht, where they mixed organ improvisations with soundscapes. Now, they take a step further by pairing the microtones of the Fokker organ with entrancing electronic sounds. An extraordinary experience with a surreal sound!
Laurens de Man (Den Bosch, 1993) is active as an organist, pianist, and harpsichordist. He studied piano and organ at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with David Kuyken, Jacques van Oortmerssen, Pieter van Dijk, and Matthias Havinga, and also took harpsichord as a minor subject with Johan Hofmann. In 2016 he graduated cum laude with a master’s degree in organ, and a year later he earned his master’s degree in piano with distinction. In 2017 he continued his studies at the Universität der Künste in Berlin with Leo van Doeselaar. He has won several major music prizes, including first prize, the audience award, and the Jan Welmers Prize at the International Martini Organ Competition in Groningen in 2017, as well as the Sweelinck-Muller Prize in 2018. In September 2019 he won first prize at the Silbermann Organ Competition in Freiberg, earning the title of “Young ECHO Organist of the Year 2020,” which led to concert invitations across Europe. The oeuvre of J.S. Bach plays a special role in his work; he has performed at the Bachfestival Dordrecht and played Bach on the television programme De Wereld Draait Door. He has also appeared on Podium Witteman on NTR. Since January 2012, Laurens de Man has been chief organist of the Janskerk in Utrecht, and in 2014 he served as organ intern at the Oude Kerk congregation in Amsterdam. Since 2019, he has been the regular second organist of the Fokker organ in the Kleine Zaal of the Muziekgebouw.