Buma Classical Awards

During New Music Conference we will honour not just one, but two composers from the Netherlands with a Buma Classical Award. One Award goes to the composer who stood out for his or her presence on the cultural circuit in the past two years. We are also presenting a Classical Lifetime Achievement Award for the first time. Make sure to join us on 14 November!

The Buma Classical Awards will be presented by Esther Gottschalk (Director, New Music NOW, NL).

Buma Classical Award: Corrie van Binsbergen

The Buma Classical Award 2024, for the composer who has stood out in the cultural scene over the past two years, went to Corrie van Binsbergen (1957). Since the mid-1980s, she has conducted and composed for nine bands, including Corrie en de Brokken, programmed monthly musical encounters for ten years, founded her own festival and organised numerous writers’ concerts and the annual BrokkenBal. She composes for orchestras and ensembles such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Metropole Orchestra, Asko Schönberg and Silbersee.

‘The most difficult question has always been: what do you make music for?’ says Van Binsbergen in an interview conducted for the occasion. She is as surprised by the Classical Award as she was when she won the Boy Edgar Prize, a prestigious jazz award, earlier in her career. ‘I didn’t see myself as the prototype of a jazz musician. I am just a musician. My music is a mixture of everything I like. The fact that she is now being honoured in the classical category is a fine endorsement. The direction I have taken now seems to be appreciated by more people.’

Read an interview with Corrie van Binsbergen in our magazine

Buma Classical Lifetime Achievement Award: Theo Loevendie

During New Music Conference, the Buma Classical Lifetime Achievement Award was presented for the first time to a Dutch composer who has left a significant mark on contemporary classical music: Theo Loevendie (1930).

He is not only a lifelong performer on saxophone and clarinet, but above all an unsurpassed composer of contemporary classical music, non-Western music and jazz. Throughout his long life, he has written operas, orchestral works and chamber music for both Western and Eastern instruments. Loevendie is regarded as a storyteller whose social commitment shines through in his works about war victims, freedom fighters and heroes standing up for a good cause. With ensembles under his own name and others he has co-founded, he has brought his own music and the music of many Dutch and international composers to a wide national and international audience. He has written for Isabelle van Keulen, Ronald Brautigam, Erik Bosgraaf and the Concertgebouw Orchestra, among others. He is also highly regarded by many in the field of jazz and improvised music. At the conservatories of The Hague, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, he was an inspiring teacher for many, allowing his composition students to go their own way in style and approach. He can rightly be called a Dutch gem; a deserving winner of the Buma Classical Lifetime Achievement Award.

‘At Donemus, we know Theo Loevendie as a great and colourful composer. His genre-transcending works are musical jewels of our recent music history. His ability to interweave traditional and modern elements inspired new generations of composers to this day. Donemus is proud to cherish and permanently showcase many of his works.’ – Davo van Peursen, Managing Director, Donemus Publishing

‘Theo Loevendie has been a successful composer with our publishing house for more than 30 years and has become a dear friend. We thoroughly enjoy working with him.’ – Peermusic Hamburg

New Music NOW playlists

The choices of Theo Loevendie
The choices of Corrie van Binsbergen