Wil Offermans (1957- present)

Introduction
Wil Offermans is a Dutch composer and flutist. He was born in Maastricht, Holland in 1957. He began his musical education at the age of six by learning the recorder and playing for many hours a day and at twelve he officially started playing the flute. He’s had many influential teachers such as Cecilia Oomes, Lucius Voorhorst, and Raymond Delnoye from the Rotterdam Philharmonic. During his early years he explored many musical genres by composing works in theatre, pop music, jazz, with poets and with dancers. He graduated from Brabants Conservatory in 1983, where he studied classical flute performance and improvisation. During his studies he went to the United States to study with many prominent flutists. After graduating he went on an eighteen-country tour to perform and research the different flute cultures. He researched indigenous flutes, made a flute collection, wrote for newspapers and performed with local musicians. He has performed his works in many different scenarios all over the world, including as a soloist and also with other musicians.

Works

 * Voices of Nagasaki
 * Kotekan
 * Dance with Me
 * Tsuru-no-sugomori
 * Thumpy

Comparisons
Offermans refers to his musical style as 'collectvism'. He writes each instruments part to be simple and straightforward when played alone but when all played together they create a sound that is perplexing and mysterious to his audience. He often has small sections of music repeated multiple times to make the sound build and have a trance-like effect.

Observations
Like Antonin Dvorak, Offermans' music has been strongly influenced by culture. He spent some time in Japan during his eighteen-country flute tour and he uses a lot of the instruments and styles he observed there in his music. His piece Tsuru-no-sugomori (Nesting of the Cranes) uses the melody of a traditional Shakuhachi, Japanese end-blown flute, which adds a really full texture to the music. The piece is about the full life cycle of a crane, which are highly respected animals in Japanese culture.