Harry de Wit
De Wit found his way in music early on in his life. After having been a part of experimental bands for several years, he quite quickly came into contact with visual art and dance as an improvisational musician, followed later by theatre and film. His incessant search for new and special sounds has resulted in a vast amount of specially developed instruments over the years.
C.V.
He made his first installations and environmental commissions in the city of Groningen, where he established the company Mezzing together with choreographer Beppie Blankert. It was for dance that he made his first non-‐improvisational compositions. His love for dance has since never ceased, and De Wit’s music has been a part of numerous dance performances. A small selection of the many choreographers De Wit has worked with: Ton Lutgerink, Hans van Manen, Laurie Booth, Lucinda Childs, Shusaku Takeuchi, Ed Wubbe, Michael Schumacher, Meg Stuart. In 2006 De Wit received the ‘Prijs van de Nederlandse Dansdagen’ (Price of the Dutch Dance Festival) for his contribution to modern dance.
De Wit is also active as a solo artist and he has developed a name for special location-‐ bound projects and collaborations. Again a small selection: In 1985 in Rouen he gave the spectacular Concert pour Centrale Electrique in an empty power plant. In Rennes this was followed by l’Eglise Electrique. In Karlsruhe he created Song for the Pigeons for the opening of the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie. Gevels (Facades) was made in occasion of the opening of the Holland Festival in 1998. In 2012 he enchanted the A-‐Kerk in Groningen with his installation Dalend Rood (Falling Red) at the Sound on Sound Festival.
In the 80’s and 90’s De Wit created the musical theatre-‐performances Embodiment with Shusaku Takeuchi, Blanco with Elise Lorraine, Robinson with Rieks Swarte and Fausto Coppi with Jan Ritsema. He was also involved in several projects of Gerrit Timmers and Mirjam Koen with Het Onafhankelijk Toneel.
His original sounds, timbres and musical inventiveness were not unnoticed by theatre directors. He has thus been a part of many plays directed by i.a. Ivo van Hove, Johan Doesburg, Pierre Audi, Ger Thijs and Gerardjan Rijnders. For this oeuvre he was honoured with the VSCD Proscenium Prize for theatre in 2005.
Besides performance-‐art, De Wit has also often had the pleasure of creating for the medium of film, both documentary and fictional. Directors whom have regularly been in collaboration with De Wit, amongst others: Marjoleine Boonstra, Aliona van der Horst, Nanouk Leopold, Ben van Lieshout, Niek Koppen, Annette Apon and Frans Weisz. In 2010 he was nominated for a ‘Gouden Kalf’ prize for his score accompanying Brownian Movement directed by Nanouk Leopold.
At the moment, De Wit is putting the final touches to the music for a co-‐production of Selfmade Films with Finnish director Willy Hyvönen, with Salesmen of Happiness as a working title. The same goes for the score of the film Problemski Hotel of Belgian moviemaker Manu Riche. For the coming Sound on Sound Festival, a collaboration with Dunja Jojic is planned, which will take place in an empty sugar refinery. In the Tschumi Pavilion in Groningen De Wit will work together with Spanish video artist Darya von Berner. For the oncoming Ruhr Triënnale, De Wit will once again work with Ivo van Hove and Jan Versweyveld in the production of De Stille Kracht.