Johan de Meij is originally from Holland and now lives in upstate New York. He is famous for his Symphony No. 1, The Lord of the Rings and enjoys a busy career as a composer and conductor. He recently commissioned a piece titled, Felini.

JN: Johan, get us up to speed. What’s going on in your world?

JDM: I’ve been home for 9 weeks now because of a skiing accident where I broke my leg. So I’m just now recovering. It gives me a lot of time to write music, but no travelling, no guest conducting. I had to cancel some events to my regret, but it’s just bad luck.

The piece Felini you mentioned was written for alto sax, wind orchestra and circus band. It’s based off of the Italian filmmaker Felini. A lot of his movies have circus and clowns as a very important element to them. So the piece has a circus band is separate from the wind band so that they souhnd like they’re in a different world, and it really works quite well. It’s surprising for the audience as well. The circus band plays something very rowdy and loud, but the orchestra just keeps playing on stage. The alto sax soloist is not standing on the front of the stage as traditional. They’re more like an actor, moving around quite a bit. You have a chance to be really creative with it depending on the venue it’s being performed.

JN: So sobriety is not your goal with this piece.

JDM: No. (laughing)

JN: This podcast is about peak musical performance. And to get to the peak, you have to go through a few valleys. So let’s start out with what you consider to be one of your worst moments as a performer.

JDM: My worst moment as a player was as a member of the Amsterdam Wind Orchestra. We were doing a live radio broadcast for the Holland Festival. The composer was present and she wrote a piece for brass quartet. I was playing 2nd trombone. It was so difficult, there were a few things I just couldn’t play. So the performance arrived and I was so nervous. The piece started and my chops just weren’t working. There’s this big cadenza where I went to a high E. I didn’t make it because I wasn’t playing well so I just made something up. The conductor was looking over at me like, what are you doing? The composer comes up after the performance and actually didn’t notice that I screwed up.

Fortunately I have had very few really bad moments as a performer.

 

JN: Was Lord of the Rings your first major work?

JDM: Yes.

JN: Had you composed anything before that?

JDM: I had done some arrangements and one short original work for brass sextet, but it was my first one. A lot of people don’t believe me when I say that because it sounds pretty mature. It took me 4 years to write, and believe it or not, next year 2018 will be the 30th anniversary of its premier. It really changed my life in a profound way. It put me on the map as a composer. A year later I won a major award in the United States, which was crucial for the popularity of the piece.

As time goes on, it gets played more and more. It used to be that people would play just a movement or two, but a lot of bands are playing the entire piece.

JN: Was there a spike in popularity when the movies came out?

JDM: Not really a spike, but a bit of growth. But it’s incredible how it grows in popularity after all these years.

JN: I’m sure you’ve conducted it hundreds of times.

JDM: Yes, but I never get tired of it. Sometimes when people ask me to conduct it, I’ll suggest something else as an alternative that’s more recent. But if they want to do it, I don’t try to stop them.

JN: Do you still play trombone?

JDM: No. I stopped playing professionally when I moved to the U.S. in 2008.