Joey Roukens is a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 of contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...

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Roukens studied composition with Klaas de Vries

Klaas de Vries (composer)

Klaas de Vries is a Dutch composer. De Vries teaches composition at the conservatory of Rotterdam and can be described as influential in the Dutch musical life.-Biography:...

 at the Rotterdam Conservatoire and psychology at Leiden University

Leiden University

Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...

. Roukens also studied piano privately with Ton Hartsuiker

Ton Hartsuiker

Ton Hartsuiker is a Dutch classical pianist, best known as a performer of 20th century classical music, composer, music school administrator and radio broadcaster. He was the director of both the Music Academy of Utrecht and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and was also on the faculty of the...

. His works have been performed by, among others, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Nieuw Ensemble, the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet and Orkest de Volharding. His output includes orchestral works, ensemble works, chamber music and solo instrumental works.

In his music Roukens strives to move away from modernist dogmas in search for a more direct idiom in which present and past, diatonicism and chromaticism, tonality

Tonality

Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...

 and atonality

Atonality

Atonality in its broadest sense describes music that lacks a tonal center, or key. Atonality in this sense usually describes compositions written from about 1908 to the present day where a hierarchy of pitches focusing on a single, central tone is not used, and the notes of the chromatic scale...

can coexist in a natural way. In doing so, he tries to be open to as many different kinds and styles of music as possible, whether it be new styles or old styles, high culture or vernacular culture, ‘serious’ or popular music, western music or non-western music. For a long time, Roukens has also been active in pop music.