Robin de Raaff (*1968) is one of the internationally best-known Dutch composers of our time alongside Michel van der Aa and the recently deceased Louis Andriessen. Similarly to the two years younger van der Aa, de Raaff has established himself in an independent position between neotonal postmodernism and the strict avantgarde. A number of his pieces take canonic works from the 20th century as a starting point for freely and individually developed compositions.
De Raaff was born in Breda and was given piano lessons at an early age. He did not however discover composition through his classical training, but instead by playing bass guitar in a band as a teenager. De Raaff began writing his own pop and jazz songs, inventing ever more ingenious instrumental solos which were ultimately transformed into complex notated pieces for instruments. This prompted de Raaff to study composition in Amsterdam, graduating in 1997. A key experience for the young composer was a masterclass with Pierre Boulez held by the Dutch National Opera in 1995. Boulez was impressed by de Raaff’s String Quartet No. 1 and provided him with public support. Another notable mentor was George Benjamin with whom de Raaff was able to study at the Royal College of Music in London in 1999 as his then only student of composition. He also received tuition in composition from Julian Andersson. Since 2001, de Raaff has been professor of composition at the Conservatoire in Rotterdam.
De Raaff’s extensive catalogue of works is highly varied, but displays a particular affinity with orchestral works in which the composer’s individual musical inventiveness and art of instrumentation is best able to unfurl. His works include five symphonies and ten instrumental concertos and he has created two operas for the Dutch National Opera. His opera ‘RAAFF’ on which the composer worked for more than ten years was premiered by Dutch National Opera in 2004. The protagonist is the tenor with the same surname as the composer, Anton Raaff, who is best known as the first performer of the role of Idomeneo in the eponymous opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His second opera ‘Waiting for Miss Monroe’, based on the life of Marylin Monroe, was given its premiere in 2012 and has since enjoyed immense international success.
De Raaff has been involved in a longstanding cooperation with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its own Tanglewood Festival which was the location for a number of his work premieres including the Piano Concerto No. 1 in 2001. He has also worked closely with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra which will be giving the first Dutch performance of de Raaff’s latest large-scale work ‘L’Azur’ during the season 2026/27.
As of: November 2024