Esther Venrooy

Esther Venrooy (b. 1974, Rosmalen, The Netherlands) is a composer and sound artist working in the field of electronic music.

After completing studies in classical saxophone, Esther Venrooy attended the European Dance Development Center (Arnhem) as a composer in residence, where she began employing electronic and digital techniques in pieces aimed at choreography and stage performance. Gradually her music evolved into an independent means of expression and she continued her work with electronica at the IPEM (Institute for Psycho-acoustics and Electronic Music) in Ghent, Belgium where she still resides. At this time she started utilizing film editing paradigms as a foundation for her personal composition methods. Her works range from purely electronic composed music to improvised combinations of electronica with traditional instrumentation such as piano, guqin, pipa and satsumabiwa. She has created site-specific works as well as multimedia performances and installations. Much of her music has been released on CD or vinyl at Entr’acte label (UK) and has received good critical acclaim.

Esther Venrooy has performed her music extensively for audiences in Europe, Asia and America. She collaborated with visual artists Hans Demeulenaere, architect Ema Bonifacic, choreographer Femke Gyselinck and withpipa player Min Xiao-Fen , guqin playerWu Na, bass player Kato Hideki and pianist Heleen Van Haegenborgh. Upcoming projects are with guitarist Mauro Pawlowski, drummer Lander Gyselinck and architect Olivier Goethals.

Apart from her artistic activities, Esther is a lecturer on 20th century music and experimental arts at the Ghent School of Fine Art, where she also runs the audio workshop. Esther also presides the board of (k-raa-k)3 organization. In 2009, Esther started a PhD research on ‘Audio topography – (re)constructing auditive spaces’. In this research she will explore the auditory experience of space and the interaction between the auditory senses and the built environment.

For more info visit:
http://www.esthervenrooy.net/

Esther gave a lecture and performance on 25 March, part of the Chambers 23–27/03/09 programme of talks and performances.
In 2011, Esther is one of the tutors of Field Studies.