Ig Henneman (1945, Haarlem)

Born in 1945 in Haarlem, The Netherlands, violist Ig Henneman is a noted composer and bandleader and a key member of the Dutch creative improvising community. With a background that includes playing and recording with a rock band in the late '70s and early '80s, her subsequent career has centered around music that draws from free improvisation and avant jazz as well as chamber classical-informed modern composition. She has also composed for film and theater. With a long history as a bandleader leading many groups showcasing improvisers as well as her own compositions, she nowadays mainly focuses on composing, and improvising with Duo Baars-Henneman, playing solo concerts and performing with ad hoc combinations.
Henneman manages the Wig label, an Amsterdam-based imprint together with her partner. Her music is heard in hundreds of concerts throughout Europe, North America, Brazil and Japan.
Booklet Ig Henneman 65
Programma Componistenportret Ig Henneman 75
Program Composers Portrait Ig Henneman 75
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IG HENNEMAN 75 composer improviser knight

According to American critic Ed Hazell “... an artist incapable of remaining satisfied with any music that lies strictly within the boundaries of any one style. (…) it’s a beautiful, functioning musical world all it’s own that Henneman developed organically out of poetry, jazz, classical, improvised music—and birdsong. (…) Not that she doesn’t have chops, but she seems determined to subvert classical notions of instrumental prowess in favor of a deliberately simple approach with more emphasis on timbre and more directly expressive (perhaps this is a legacy of her rock experience?) (…) Here the deliberately awkward rhythms, the dry textures and subdued colors of her playing, the concentration of thought and her ability to pare down to essentials take on an intense vulnerability and humanity. (…) It is sound discovered and organized with no preconceived notions and it is both incredibly touching and intellectually thrilling at the same time."

Some highlights:

• Composers Portrait in celebration of her 75th birthday that finally took place on September 2021 for a limited audience due to Covid-19. For this event Henneman invited a poet and ten musicians: a fine mixture of various backgrounds and ages. They performed the composers work in a variety of line-ups in a program with three premieres, improvisations, earlier works and poems.
The whole event is documented on the video 'IG HENNEMAN 75 composer improviser knight’
• 'Solo Songs for Instruments'
Henneman wrote these five Solo Songs for violin, viola, clarinet/bassclarinet, bassoon and cello between 2014-2019. All compositions are inspired by a poem, guided improvisation is an element, as well as the voice of the performer. In 2020 the CD 'Solo Songs for Instruments' will be released on the Wig label.
• Canada tour 2017 and Europe tour 2014 with Perch Hen Brock & Rain ‘Amsterdam meets New York’: a totally improvised quartet featuring Ab Baars, Ig Henneman, Ingrid Laubrock ts, and Tom Rainey drs. This culminated in the CD ‘Live @ The Jazz Happening Tampere’.
• New Music Festival Utrecht (2014) Nicolaichurch
Henneman programs her compositions: 'Tratti per Arpa' for harp solo, 'Molot' for marimba-solo , 'Four Dances' for harp and marimba; per