Genres Classical, Electronic Genre Classical music | Instruments Theremin Instrument Theremin | |
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Website www.thorwaldjorgensen.com Similar Carolina Eyck, Lydia Kavina, Peter Pringle, Barbara Buchholz, Léon Theremin | ||
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Thorwald Jørgensen (born 1980, Zaltbommel) is a Dutch classical musician, who specialises in playing the theremin, an electronic musical instrument.
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Biography
Jørgensen took up playing percussion instruments aged 14, and began playing in orchestras. He took up classical music as a career full time after graduating from the Utrecht and Tilburg Conservatory. He became influenced by the theremin after hearing the work of Clara Rockmore, and began researching the instrument's history and teaching himself how to play one. As well as watching old videos of Rockmore, he consulted a friend who played the cello for musical advice. He learned Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise" and it has become one of his favourite pieces. He has subsequently played over 100 concerts using the theremin, including Saint Petersburg and a tour of the United States. In 2014, Jørgensen performed at the Music and Beyond festival in Ottawa, performing Daniel Mehdizadeh's "The Awakening of Baron Samedi". Together with Dutch harp player Renske de Leuw, Thorwald premiered "Sirenum scopuli" by Canadian composer Victor Herbiet at the X Rio Harp Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2015.
Jørgensen has been described as "one of the most important exponents of classical music on the theremin". In interviews, he has said he considers the theremin capable of being a serious instrument, rather than the novelty it is normally perceived as. He believes he can reproduce all the sounds in a typical classical string section from double bass to violin. In concert, usually after a performance of "Vocalise", he likes to explain the operation of the instrument to the audience, saying the performance "should be about the music and not about me playing in the air". He has assembled a library of theremin music from stock libraries in both the Netherlands and worldwide, and has lectured on composition at the Amsterdam and Rotterdam Conservatory.
Outside of classical music, Jørgensen has also played theremin on the Dutch progressive metal band Satinoxide's album "Still in the Sun".