Every year the North Sea Jazz Festival – with support from the Performing Arts Fund NL – commissions a promising Dutch jazz composer to write a free composition. For the most recent edition of the festival, a professional jury selected horn player and composer Morris Kliphuis. His composition Dimlicht will be performed with a newly-formed sextet with musicians from varied backgrounds, from synth pop to free jazz and classical.

As Kliphuis said about the work: ‘I find the meeting of pop and jazz approaches very interesting. I didn’t want to put together the usual suspects; these are people who work at music in very different ways. During the performance I want to show a varied color palette. An exciting experience, that’s my goal.’

Morris Kliphuis studied jazz horn at the Conservatory of Amsterdam after preparatory training in classic composition at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. For his master’s degree, he researched the possibilities for applying the composition techniques of Stravinsky and Janaçek in jazz. He has played in varied lineups both in The Netherlands and abroad and has worked as a composer. Kliphuis has won many awards, including the Edison Jazz with his band Kapok.

Morris Kliphuis horn/cornet, Mete Erker bass clarinet/tenor saxophone, Alexander Hawkins piano, Jasper Slijderink synthesizers, Ricardo Lekatompessy bass, Mischa Porte drums