Willem Jeths
Dutch composer Willem Jeths was born on 31 August 1959 in Amersfoort, where he began piano and music theory lessons as a child. He studied composition at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and then at the Conservatory of Utrecht (where he won the Composition Prize), and also studied musicology at the University of Amsterdam.
He focuses mainly on orchestral music, but has akso written many chamber works. Important compositions are his violin concerto Glenz (1993), the orchestral work Throb (1995), the 2008 opera Hôtel de Pékin – Dreams for a Dragon Queen, his Symphony No 1 (2012, for orchestra and mezzo-soprano) and the Requiem (first performed in 2017).
Since 2007 he has taught composition at the Conservatory of Amsterdam.
In 2014 the BUMA/STEMRA copyright organisation appointed him as the Netherlands' first Componist des Vaderlands.