biography
Martin de Ruiter graduated from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, majoring in accordion, and then studied chamber music at the Rotterdam Conservatory. Initially, he concentrated mainly on contemporary music and played with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Newt Hinton Ensemble, Percussion Group The Hague and the Metropole Orchestra, among others.
He has been playing bandoneón since the 90s. With various ensembles he has played on stages and festivals in the Netherlands and abroad, such as Poetry International and the Dunya Festival, and he played the solo bandoneon in the tango opera Maria de Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla in performances in the Netherlands and Japan.
As a performer and composer he has worked in theatre productions with Toneelgroep Amsterdam (ITA), Het Nationale Toneel and de Toneelmakerij, among others, and produced his own performances including the theatrical dance performance MinoTauroTango. As a soloist and conductor he worked at festivals such as Musica Sacra, Festival Oude Muziek and 'Automne en Normandie'.
In 2024 his composition Canticum Canticorum for mixed choir, soprano, bandoneón and strings premiered, and in 2025 Lumen Mundi on texts by Erasmus. Of the scores he wrote for silent film, that of Der Mandarin was performed live at the KonzertHaus in Vienna. From 1999 to 2025 he was a programmer at the Filmmuseum. He co-initiated the Filmmuseum Biennials and started the successful series of Cinema Concerts, which put 'silent film and live music' on the international map. Composers such as Louis Andriessen, Florian Magnus Mayer and Henny Vrienten were invited to write new music for film and musicians such as Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, Spinvis, Corrie van Binsbergen and Tomoko Mukaiyama to perform. Collaborations with Holland Festival, Cello Biennale, Grachtenfestival, Muziek Gebouw aan ‘t IJ were started, and he made crossovers with theater (Orkater), radio producers (Stef Visjager), jazz (New Cool Collective), classical music (EnAccord String Quartet), electronic music (Kyteman) and improvisation (Guus Janssen). Young film composers (from the HKU) wrote music for a film from the Eye Filmmuseum collection every year and he paid attention to non-Western traditions such as the Japanese voice actor/'benshi' Ichido Kataoka and to film culture from the SWANA region with the series Eye meets Marmoucha.
In recent years, a lot of creative and public-oriented cultural programming has been made. Through connection with other institutions and collaboration with other disciplines, he created tightly produced and surprising performances, both for the Film Museum and for other institutions.
performing with: Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Naska, Barbara Duijfjes, Het Nationale Toneel, conducting the Newt Hinton Ensemble
Thus begins Canticum Canticorum, or Song of Songs, one of the most beautiful love poems in world literature.
It describes the love story of a young woman and a young man, with moments of happiness and satisfaction, and moments of fear and doubt. Passages with reflections and drama. Exalted passion, night scenes, hymns. What is striking is the ubiquitous eroticism; inseparably connected with love. And literally shameless by the purity of that love. And what also stands out is the beautiful balance between the girl and the boy; both in action and in expression. In fact: she takes the initiative to visit him when they are just getting to know each other. No docility from one person, but two independent people who find each other in love.
The composition was written for mixed choir, solo soprano, bandoneón, strings and piano and consists of eight parts. The text, a selection from the original, is sung in Latin; this one of the oldest translations of the original Hebrew text. Total length 40 minutes. The piece was premiered on October 19th 2024.
for an impression of part 1: go to the AUDIO tab.
