Wiek Hijmans - Ladder of Escape 16 (2023)

Guitarist and composer Wiek Hijmans is a pioneering figure, one of the few musicians who play the electric guitar in a classical context. He has written more than 150 works for the electric guitar.

Hijmans was born April 23, 1967, in De Bilt, in the Dutch province of Utrecht. He began his musical studies on percussion in 1976 at the Music School of Zeeland in Middelburg, Netherlands, and then added guitar lessons and music theory, studying with the classical guitarist David Starobin there through 1984. Becoming interested in both contemporary classical music and popular electric guitar, he decided to try to integrate the two. Hijmans went on to the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, earning a performing musician's diploma in 1991. He also earned a professional studies certificate at the Manhattan School of Music in 1997. He won the latter school's Andres Segovia Prize. He appeared at the Contrechamps/Archipel 2000 festival in Geneva, Switzerland. Hijmans released his first album, Electric Solo!, in 2002 on the X-OR label.

Hijmans has appeared widely as a soloist and chamber musician across Europe and the U.S. and as far afield as Indonesia. He has performed as a soloist with both traditional orchestras, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and with new music groups, such as the Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin and the CATCH Electric Guitar Quartet, which he formed in 2014 at the request of composer Steven Mackey. The group made its debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He often performs with the ASKO/Schönberg Ensemble.

Hijmans has written many compositions for the electric guitar, both solo and in chamber contexts, and many other composers, including Christian Wolff, Theo Loevendie, and Allison Cameron, have written music for him. He released several more albums on X-OR, including Classic Electric (2004) and One Hour (2012). Hijmans returned on the Naxos label in 2022, appearing on clarinetist and composer Derek Bermel's album Intonations. Hijmans is the author of a guide to the electric guitar for composers. He has given master classes in many countries and is on the faculty at the Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands. ~ James Manheim