Nicholas Lens
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nicholas Lens | |
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| Born: | Ypres, Belgium |
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| Occupation: | Author, Composer, Director |
| Nationality: | Belgian |
| Genres: | Contemporary Classical Opera |
| Influences: | Igor Stravinsky, Peter Eötvös, Moving Theatre |
The multi-disciplinary artist Nicholas Lens was born in Ypres, a small provincial town near the French boarder in Flanders, Belgium and is a contemporary Belgian author, composer and director. His godfather taught him violin when he was five. He studied trumpet and double-bass, first at local academies and then at Royal conservatories. Later on he studied viola da gamba with Sophie Watillon.
While he was studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, he started composing professionally for theatrical projects, film and television. While a member of the National Orchestra of Belgium, the conductor Mendi Rodan offered him a contract as a double bass player in the Israel Sinfonietta in Beersheeva, Israel.
He had to make an important choice between the career of a professional musician and the uncertain life conditions of an autodidact composer. He made his choice.
Meanwhile he was caught by the virus of globetrotting. Inspired by this new passion, adventurous traveling, he started to create a musical -and recently as well a visual- oeuvre of the maze of images gathered in his mind.
His work is published by Schott Music International, Mainz/New York and distributed by Sony BMG International.
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[edit] Personal life
(ref. interviews/portraits WNYC-RTL-Deutsche Rundfunk-ARD-SWR-Viva-Concertzender-Klassik R. De-Schott Music-Sony BMG)
Lens spent his youth in Ypres in Flanders, Belgium, a war town surrounded by several American and British cemeteries. He grew up in a musical family of five children. His mother was a professional piano player. He has a brother who is a professional classical singer, his oldest sister lives since years in Havanna, Cuba where she is the chief-cook of Fidel Castro.
His godfather André Moerman, a concert violinist, was paralysed due to the MS-decease. As his godfather was bored by sitting all day in his wheelchair he taught the violin to Nicholas Lens when he was at the age of five. Lens was singing in several youth choirs.
His official -but funny and ironical- biography[1] [2] quotes: "Once when the child Nicholas Lens was playing the violin in a very enthusiastic way during the lessons, his bow touched, by accident, the director of the local academy on one of his vital organs. So the little Nicholas’ violin career ended when he was ten.“
And it goes on: “His first television appearance was as a clarion player when he was eleven. He was asked to play “The Last Post” at an official ceremony at a British and American war cemetery. Nicholas was wearing short pants and it was freezing cold. The television crew members offered him some brandy. The version of “The Last Post” he played during the ceremony on his horn was never heard before.” [3]
Lens moved from Ypres to Brussels at the age of fifteen.
He was supporting his own studies at the Royal Conservatory by writing music for theater plays and television.
It is believed that one day he was kicked out of the Conservatory of Brussels by the director in person with whom Lens had a serious divergence of views on matters of musical education. The director of that Conservatory (Kamiel D'Hooghe, dir. between 1967-1994) heard that Lens, as a student, did accept to compose commissioned music to provide himself an income, which was in that time against the regulations of the institute.
Lens went traveling all over the world and became an autodidact composer and writer. He’s having one daughter with a French-speaking Belgian television journalist that he met during an interview for RTL-News.
Now Lens is a single father and lives in Brussels with his nine year-old daughter Clara-Lane.
[edit] Works
- The songbook ‘Orrori dell’Amore’ (1995) for soprano, baritone, counter and chamber orchestra; CD release on Sony Classical (SK 62016) - published by Schott Music International, Mainz;
- The soundtrack ‘Mein Erstes Wunder’ a film by Anne Wild (premiere Berlin, 2003);
- The trilogy ‘The Accacha Chronicles’ (2005) (Sony BMG 82876 66239 2 -published by Schott Music International, Mainz/New York) for soprano, tenor, counter, mezzo soprano, baritone, bass, male actor, small choir, mixed choir and chamber orchestra:
- part I: Flamma Flamma -The Fire Requiem (1994) (BMG Classics 74321 697172 - Sony Classical (SK 66293);
- part II: Terra Terra -The Aquarius Era (1999) (BMG Classics 74321 697182);
- part III: Amor Aeternus -Hymns of Love (2005), (Sony BMG 82876 66238 2);
- The film (22 min.) “love is the only master I’ll serve”, (premiere at the BIFF New York, June 2006) music, script, directing;
- "The Puppet Designer" for baritone and chamber orchestra, published by Schott Music International (2006), Mainz/New York.
- "Wired," theatrical chamber music for harp and soprano (premiered at Beijing, China on December 5, 2006);
| Nicholas Lens | |
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|
| Born: | Ypres, Belgium |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | Author, Composer, Director |
[edit] Announced works
- "Slow Man," (N. Lens/ J. M. Coetzee) (in preparation), an opera in co-operation with John M. Coetzee (libretto) based on his novel Slow Man;
- "Ame Nue," a 3-o 4 4 women, (in preparation), a theatrical chamber piece (premiere automn 2007);
- "The Sorrow of Serena," (in preparation), a new film as writer and director;
- "Tim & Sluik", a novelette for children (publication end of 2007).
[edit] About "The Accacha Chronicles"
Among his works, his most important and famous up to now is probably his Trilogy "The Accacha Chronicles," which consists of the following three parts:
- Part I: Flamma Flamma - The Fire Requiem (1994)
- Part II: Terra Terra - The Aquarius Era (1999)
- Part III: Amor Aeternus - Hymns Of Love (2005)
