Lavinia Meijer
Encyclopedia
Education
When she was 11 years old, Lavinia was accepted by Erika Waardenburg to study at the Young Talent Department of the Utrecht Conservatory. She graduated cum laude from the Utrecht Conservatory in 2003 and obtained a Masters Degree in Music (also cum laude) in 2005 from the Amsterdam Conservatory.For her masters degree Lavinia studied under, among others, Jana Bouskova, Isabelle Moretti, Daphne Boden, Natalia Shameyva, Emilia Moskvitina, Maria Graf, Skaila Kanga
Skaila Kanga
Skaila Kanga is a harpist and is Head of Harp Studies at the Royal Academy of Music, London, England. After winning a Junior Exhibition to the Royal Academy of Music for piano, she switched to harp studies at age 17...
and Susann McDonald
Susann McDonald
Susann McDonald is an American-born classical harpist. In addition to a successful performing career, she has made a number of recordings and held significant academic and organizational posts.-Life:...
. She also took a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
course from the jazz harpist Park Stickney and lessons on interpretation with Theo Olof (violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
), Walter van Hauwe (recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
) en Willem Brons (piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
).
Activities
Lavinia has performed in EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and America. She has played as a soloist with orchestras, such as the Residentie Orkest, the Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Chamber Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is the leading symphony orchestra in Israel. It was originally known as the Palestine Orchestra, and in Hebrew as התזמורת הסימפונית הארץ ישראלית The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit...
. She was invited to play during festivals such as the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam, the Schleswig-Holstein Muziek Festival and a number of World Harp Congresses. Lavinia is also a regular substitute for various orchestras, including the Residentie Orkest and the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest.
Special Projects
In 2004 Lavinia made a tour through the Netherlands in the series "Het Debut" together with the Jenufa Quartet. In the period 2006-2008, Lavinia is performing in the series "Rising Stars" with concerts in CologneCologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
(Philharmonie), Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
(Concertgebouw), Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
(Cité-de-la-Musique), Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
(Wiener Musikverein), Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
(Symphony Hall), Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
(Concert Hall), Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
(Paleis voor schone kunsten), Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
(Philharmonie), Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
(Konserthus) and New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
(Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
).
In 2006 Lavinia, together with the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, performed new transcriptions of Caplet
Caplet
Caplet can refer to one of the following:*A short, half-round fencing cape with a collar, worn over one sholder. A cord , ran from one end of the collar to the other, allowing it to be secured around the man's chest...
, Debussy and Ravel, and also two world premieres from the Argentinian 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...
Carlos Michans
Carlos Micháns
Carlos Micháns is a Dutch composer of Argentine origin. He lives in Holland since 1982. His works are published in Amsterdam by Muziek Centrum Nederland . Micháns is also a writer...
and the Dutch composer Wijnand van Klaveren, both of which composed music especially for her and the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet. In 2007 Lavinia and Tjeerd Top (violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
), performed a world premiere from the American composer Garrett Byrnes
Garrett Byrnes
Garrett Byrnes is an American composer.Byrnes was born in Bad Kreuznach, Germany while his father was stationed at the U.S. Army Base there, and relocated to New Jersey in the United States...
at the Concertgebouw
Concertgebouw
The Concertgebouw is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" literally translates into English as "concert building"...
in Amsterdam. Furthermore in 2007, Lavinia performed another world premiere piece composed by Carlos Mischans at the Vredenburg in Utrecht, together with the Radio Chamber Philharmony conducted by Thierry Fischer
Thierry Fischer
Thierry Fischer is a Swiss orchestra conductor and flutist.Fischer studied flute with Aurèle Nicolet and began his musical career as Principal Flute in Hamburg and at the Zurich Opera, where he studied scores with Nikolaus Harnoncourt...
.
CD recordings
In 2004, Lavinia produced a CD album entitled "1685" with works from HandelHANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
, Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
and Scarlatti
Scarlatti
Scarlatti was the name of several Italian composers:*Alessandro Scarlatti , Baroque composer known for operas and chamber cantatas*Francesco Scarlatti , Baroque composer and musician, brother of Alessandro Scarlatti...
, which features several self-transcribed preludes and fugues from Bach's Das Wohltemperierte Klavier.
In 2008, Lavinia released a Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD is a high-resolution, read-only optical disc for audio storage. Sony and Philips Electronics jointly developed the technology, and publicized it in 1999. It is designated as the Scarlet Book standard. Sony and Philips previously collaborated to define the Compact Disc standard...
album on Channel Classics Records
Channel Classics Records
Channel Classics Records is a record label from the Netherlands, specializing in classical music. The managing director and producer is C. Jared Sacks, who grew up in Boston. Sacks was schooled as a professional horn player at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam...
, entitled "Divertissements" with works from French composers, including Carlos Salzedo
Carlos Salzedo
Carlos Salzedo , was a harpist, composer and conductor, born in Arcachon, France, who was one of the musical elite of his time.-France:...
, André Caplet
André Caplet
André Caplet was a French composer and conductor now known primarily through his orchestrations of works by Claude Debussy.-Biography:...
and Jacques Ibert
Jacques Ibert
Jacques François Antoine Ibert was a French composer. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his first attempt, despite studies interrupted by his service in World War I.Ibert pursued a successful composing career,...
.
In 2009, Lavinia released a Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD is a high-resolution, read-only optical disc for audio storage. Sony and Philips Electronics jointly developed the technology, and publicized it in 1999. It is designated as the Scarlet Book standard. Sony and Philips previously collaborated to define the Compact Disc standard...
album, produced by Channel Classics Records
Channel Classics Records
Channel Classics Records is a record label from the Netherlands, specializing in classical music. The managing director and producer is C. Jared Sacks, who grew up in Boston. Sacks was schooled as a professional horn player at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam...
, entitled "Visions" with works from 20th century composers, including Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
, Paul Patterson
Paul Patterson
Paul Patterson is a British composer and Manson Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music.Patterson studied trombone and composition at the Royal Academy of Music. He returned there to become Head of Composition and Contemporary Music until 1997, when he became Manson Professor of...
, Garrett Byrnes
Garrett Byrnes
Garrett Byrnes is an American composer.Byrnes was born in Bad Kreuznach, Germany while his father was stationed at the U.S. Army Base there, and relocated to New Jersey in the United States...
, Isang Yun
Isang Yun
Isang Yun was a Korean-German composer originally from Korea. According to his official publisher's Boosey & Hawkes biography of him, he was granted political asylum by West Germany, eventually becoming a naturalised German citizen, following his abduction and torture in 1967 by the South Korean...
and Toru Takemitsu
Toru Takemitsu
was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre...
.
In 2011, Lavinia released a Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD is a high-resolution, read-only optical disc for audio storage. Sony and Philips Electronics jointly developed the technology, and publicized it in 1999. It is designated as the Scarlet Book standard. Sony and Philips previously collaborated to define the Compact Disc standard...
album, produced by Channel Classics Records
Channel Classics Records
Channel Classics Records is a record label from the Netherlands, specializing in classical music. The managing director and producer is C. Jared Sacks, who grew up in Boston. Sacks was schooled as a professional horn player at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam...
, entitled, "Fantasies and Impromptus" with works from, among others, Louis Spohr
Louis Spohr
Louis Spohr was a German composer, violinist and conductor. Born Ludewig Spohr, he is usually known by the French form of his name. Described by Dorothy Mayer as "The Forgotten Master", Spohr was once as famous as Beethoven. As a violinist, his virtuoso playing was admired by Queen Victoria...
, Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
, Gabriel Pierné
Gabriel Pierné
Henri Constant Gabriel Pierné was a French composer, conductor, and organist.-Biography:Gabriel Pierné was born in Metz in 1863. His family moved to Paris to escape the Franco-Prussian War. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, gaining first prizes for solfège, piano, organ, counterpoint and fugue...
, Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
.
Prizes and Recognition
Lavinia Meijer has won a large number of prizes. She won the first prize at the Prinses Christina Competition (1997), the Stichting Jong Muziek Talent Nederland (1996,1998), the Nederlands Harp Competition (1997, 2004) and the Vriendenkrans contest from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (2005).She also won prizes at several large international harp competitions: the second prize at the International Harp Competition in Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
(1998), the third prize at the International Harp Competition in Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
(1999), the first prize at the International Harp Competition in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
(2000), the third prize at the International Harp Competition in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
(2001), the second prize at the Reinl-Wettbewerb in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
(2002) and the third prize at the Sixth International USA Harp Competition in America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(2004).
Furthermore, she has won prizes for the best interpretation of Visions in Twilight from Garrett Byrnes
Garrett Byrnes
Garrett Byrnes is an American composer.Byrnes was born in Bad Kreuznach, Germany while his father was stationed at the U.S. Army Base there, and relocated to New Jersey in the United States...
and the harp concert in B-flat major from Georg Friedrich Händel. In 2005, Lavinia was awarded the Cultuurprijs from Ede for her promotion of the harp as a solo instrument. This prize was presented to her by the renowned Herman Krebbers
Herman Krebbers
Herman Krebbers is a Dutch violinist.Born in Hengelo, Overijssel, Krebbers studied in Amsterdam with Oskar Back. In 1943, the 19 year-old violinist debuted with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and eventually became the Orchestra's Concertmaster in 1962.In parallel he led a shining career as a...
.
In 2007, Lavinia was awarded the Fellowship from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, as well as the MeesPierson Award at the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam) together with violinist Tjeerd Top.
In 2009, Lavinia was awarded the Dutch Music Prize, the highest distinction for a classical musician in the Netherlands.