Biography
Zoran Rosendahl (b. 1994, Grave, The Netherlands) is a composer of mixed Dutch/Indonesian descent who has his roots in the diverse and rich classical music culture in the Netherlands as both a composer and conductor. His main interest lies in opera, music for theatre and chamber music.
In Amsterdam he studied composition with Joel Bons, Wim Hendrickx and Willem Jeths and conducting with Danny Oosterman and Karel Deseure. Later he studied privately with Rob Goorhuis and Jan van der Roost.
In 2011, at the age of 17, he won the Royal Conservatory Prize for young composers, which enabled him to take lessons with Greek composer Caliope Tsoupaki. In both 2017 and 2019 he was a finalist of the of the conducting clinic of the Dutch National Youth Fanfare Orchestra. And in 2022, his composition Ouroboros won 1st place of the 1st division fanfare band with an outstanding performance by Fanfare De Eendracht during the World Music Contest in Kerkrade.
Rosendahl writes mostly on commission and his compositions are marked by his interdisciplinary collaborations. Some highlights of his repertoire are his 50-minute opera Nachtlicht, with a libretto by Sanne Schuhmacher. This opera is the first opera ever for soprano, tenor and wind band and premiered in January 2024. Another highlight is his collaboration with the famous actor and writer Frank Groothof on a musical fairytale for singer/actor and wind band based on the Town Musicians of Bremen by the Grimm brothers and will be premiered in April 2024.
He gets further commissions from various orchestras and wind bands all over europe and his love for chamber music has also inspired multiple commissions for members of several symphony orchestras and wind bands.
Always exploring unknown territories, Rosendahl has tried to take his musical output to new heights, thereby not shunning popular influences in his otherwise complex works. Eclecticism, elemental to post-modern times, is an often reoccurring phenomenon in his music but always used in a non-ironic way. Currently he is in the process of revitalising well-proven methods of the distant past and using these building blocks to develop new forms and combinations, slowly etching out his own style which has been marked by an innate talent for harmony and melody. Due to the nature of the genre, elements of a musical historicism and pastiche are mostly apparant in his work for wind band, whereas his chamber works present a more intricate and complex way of composing.
In order to study the diverse and historic world of opera, he moved permanently to the city of Vienna, Austria in September 2022.
