New York, New York, United States
Johan de Meij (1953) studied trombone and conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Music at The Hague. He has earned international fame as a composer and arranger. De Meij’s Symphony No.1 The Lord of the Rings was his first substantial composition and received the prestigious Sudler Composition Award in 1989. Other major works such as Symphony No. 2 The Big Apple, T-Bone Concerto (trombone concerto) and Casanova (cello concerto) have also gained worldwide recognition. Recent works are Symphony no. 3 Planet Earth and Canticles for bass trombone and wind orchestra. Besides composing and arranging, Johan de Meij is active as a performer, conductor, adjudicator and lecturer. As a trombone and euphonium player he has performed with the major orchestras and ensembles in The Netherlands, such as the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, the Dutch Brass Sextet, the Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Amsterdam Wind Orchestra and Orkest ‘De Volharding’. He has conducted some of the leading wind orchestras of Europe, Asia, Australia, North and South America and has led master classes around the world. In 2010, he was appointed principal guest conductor of the renowned Simón Bolívar Youth Wind Orchestra from Caracas, Venezuela. In 2014, Johan de Meij became principal guest conductor of both The New York Wind Symphony and The Kyushu Wind Orchestra in Fukuoka, Japan. www.johandemeij.com