About
Versatility and diversity characterize the creative mind of Arend Gerds, who composes from a contemporary perspective for a variety of instrumentations. Gerds' experience in the field of contemporary music and his musical roots in Dutch Wind Music provide a typical and recognizable sound in his work: from energetic lines and colors to an audible affinity with chorale-like music. He also specialized in music technology during his master's degree in composition. As a teacher he is affiliated with the ArtEZ conservatory in Zwolle, where he is music theory teacher. As a conductor he has been active with several wind orchestras.
Background
From 2007 to 2013 Arend Gerds (Groningen, November 4, 1987) studied at the ArtEZ Conservatory with Alex Manassen (NL) and Montclair State University (USA) with V.J. Manzo, Robert Aldridge, and Ting Ho where he obtained a bachelor's and master's degree in composition.
During his master's degree, he specialized in music technology and programming audio software using the program Max Msp. This resulted in the master thesis Maximized and the program 'Spectrum': a program which generates music on the basis of probability.
Composer
As a composer, Arend Gerds shows affinity with both contemporary composing techniques and more traditional writing styles, both of which recur in a blended form in his own sound idiom and music.
Recently he wrote compositions for NEW MUSIC NOW Files, het Gouden Spiker festival, Stichting Ivak, the North-Netherlands Saxophone Quartet, Gronings Vuur, the KNMO, Fonds Podiumkunsten, and others. His music is published by Donemus and arendgerds.net.
