Trombone
Iris is an enthousiastic trombone-player and likes to play in a lot of different settings. She plays as well alto- as tenor-trombone. She likes to go to the borders and play more than only the standard trombone repertoiry. "The most interesting thing is if you find unknown trombone music after doing research in different sources and libraries. Somtimes you find really interesting pieces to play. "
Because she is also composer she wrote a lot of music for her own instrument in all kinds of settings, for instance trombone and recorder, brass-trio, trombone and piano, trombone ensemble etc. She is also interested in modern-improvisation.
In 2012 she worked for the first time with this in her piece 'the satyrs' trance' for trombone, recorder, percussion and choreography.
In 2013 she finished the pedagogical part of her studies at the Amsterdam conservatory.
If you are interested in having classical trombonelessons you can contact her via the contact button to make an appointment for a trial lesson to see if it works. Afterwards we can talk about an individual plan what is the best for your developement as tromboneplayer.
Next to playing modern trombone Iris plays also Sackbutt. more about this you can find under the button early music.
Composer
Iris started composing at the age of 7 in 1999. She learnt the note system by herself by just counting lines in figure out which note belonged to which sound on a keybord. Because she liked music but didn't have sheet music she kept doing this. when she took trombone lessons her teacher, Hans Schippers, inspired her to continue composing. At the age of 13 e contacted her with José de Bree for having composition and pianolessons and introduction to music theory and counterpoint.
When she was 14 she won the 'jong talent prijs' with the composition contest of the 'Nederlands Blazers Ensemble' and got lessons with Calliope Tsoupaki at the conservatory of the Hague. In the same year she got her first command for a composition for youth symphony orchestra. in two weeks she finished the piece which have been performed from 2008 until 2012 by symfonia jong twente in famous concert halls as: muziekcentrum Enschede, De Doelen Rotterdam and the Wiener Musikverein. In 2009 it has been played on the dutch Radio 4 in 'De Klassieken'. The orchestra won prices. with this piece on the programm, at the 'nationaal concours voor jeugdsymfonie orkesten 2009' Rotterdam and at the Viennese 'Summa cum laude festival 2011' in the golden hall of the musikverein.
At the age of 16 she started with compositionlessons at the Amsterdam conservatory with Willem Jehts, Joel Bons and Wim Henderickx where she studied until 2012. In the years 2011 and 2012 she got the command to write for the first year wind ensemble conducted by Bas Pollard. They performed her pieces: 'iets mytologisch'(2011) and 'one day in spring ' (2012)
In 2012 she performed her own 'the lake between the mountains' for trombone and organ at the Amsterdam 'Grachtenfestival' with organplayer Jos van der Kooy in the 'Westerkerk'. During her studies at the conservatory she got a lot of oppertunities to let her music being played by students of the school in the so called 'New Music Arena's '.
In 2013 she won the first price with the famous dutch 'prinses christina compositie concours' with her composition T27 trio for Brass. from this contest she got the oppertunity to take some individual lessons with Martijn Padding and Florian Magnus Maier.
In the same year she had a command to write a 9 part trombone piece for the 'Dutch Trombone Ensemble' called 'secretly a dutch mystery' which has been performed at 'Slidefactory European Trombone Festival 2013' at De Doelen Rotterdam.
She also performed her own composition 'the bird's flight' for trombone and piano a lot of times on different solo recitals, for instance at a presentation at the 'Frankfurter Musik Messe' (2014)
To become a better composer she felt the need to play different instruments from different categories. Therefore she took lessons on: Recorder, Trombone, Piano, Violin and Organ.
More compositions from Iris you can find under the button compositions and arrangements.
Do you have an ensemble, orchestra or whatever musical setting and are you interested to have a piece specially written for your group? Iris writes also music on command. Please contact her via the contact button and she will be open to talk with you about the possibilities and your whishes to make the music fit the best to your group or special occasion.
Dances of Nature is a price winning composition of Iris Tjoonk(1992), first time officially performed by Symfonia Jong Twente at the National Contest for Youth Orchestras (2009) in Zutphen, The Netherlands. The first try-out concert was at 01-10-2008 in Neuenhaus (Germany). A striking feature of this work are the jungle sounds made by the musicians: for example, they whistle like birds and stamp their feet like elephants.
Recorded on June 19'th 2010 in the Muziekcentrum in Enschede, The Netherlands.
© on the music Iris Tjoonk 2008
T 27 trio for Brass is a composition written by Iris Tjoonk (1992) in 2012. With this composition she won the 1st price in the conservatory category at the 'prinses christina compositie concours 2013' in The Hague. performed by Mees Vos (Hoorn), Petra Triebl (Trumpet/Bügel), en Iris Tjoonk (Tenor- en Alto- trombone).
© Iris Tjoonk 2012
Early music
Iris also plays the early music version of the trombone: the 'Sackbutt'
The first time she heard the instrument, she felt in love with the beautifull warm and soft sound of it, which turned into the desire of playing this instrument as well. After doing the 'fiori musicali' summercourse in Utrecht given by the 'Ceacilia concert' in 2012, she ordered an instrument from Geert-Jan van der Heide in Putten, specially build after an instrument from Sebastian Hainlein 1630 Nürnberg.
She started to have some privat lessons and ensembles on this instrument. Since 2014 she is playing with ensemble 'Vento Vivimus' and she desided to start also with Alto- and Bass-sackbutt.
Her interest for early music was immediately there from the first moment she ever heard it. As a child Iris started with playing recorder, what in fact never flew over when she started to play trombone so she has always had a connection with early music. This connection increased when she in 2011 started again with having recorder lessons. When she discouvered the existance of the sackbutt she immediately knew this was the way to be able to play early music on trombone.
Iris always has had interest in history what she also wants to emphasize in her performances of early music. "It is important to do research after the music you play so you have the possibility to come as close as possible to the performance they would have liked at the time where the music is from, therefore it is important to look after books from people from that time and look after facsimilae. There are a lot of thing that are lost in modern editions which causes problems and discussions during rehearsals. Mostly a lot of these things can be solved by using the facsimilae, because the notation fits the music. except for that reading from handwritings is very inspiring for me"
At the moment Iris is working on some facsimile editions herself for her own ensembles. These editions will be published on this website under compositions and arrangements.
"my most impressive early music moment was when I heard the 40 part mass of Striggio being performed at the 'festival oude muziek' Utrecht. "
Instruments:
- Renaissance slide trumpet, Egger 2020
- Alt- sackbut renaissance in 440hz/430hz/415hz/d 466hz, vd Heide 2007 after Hanns Hainlein, Nürnberg (1652)
- Alt-sackbut renaissance/barok in 440hz/430hz/415hz/d 466hz, Meinl 2016
- Alt classical model 440/430/466hz, Meinl 2016
- Tenor- sackbut in 440hz/430hz/415hz/ A 466hz, vd Heide 2013 after Sebastian Hainlein Nürnberg (1630).
- Tenor-sackbut in 440hz/430hz/415hz/ A 466hz, Meinl Drewelwecz
- Tenor classical model 440/430/466hz Meinl 2020
- Bariton-sackbut in G 466hz vd Heide 2013 after Sebastian Hainlein Nürnberg (1630).
- Bass-sackbut in F 440hz/ E 466hz, vd Heide 2000 after Wolf Birckholz, Nürnberg (1650)
- Bass sackbut F 440/F415/ D466/ D 440/ Eb 440hz, Egger 2017 after Ehe, Nürnberg
- Bass sackbut F 440/ F 465 / Eb 440, Meinl, after Hainlein
- Romantic Tenor, Melchior Kaiserslautern Germany, original from 2nd half 19th century
- Romantic Bass, Eastern German model, original from about 1920-1930
- Romantic Bass, Besson English G Bass, original from 1900
- French bore bell, Le Brun Bruxelles ± 1914
- Busine D465hz, Iris Tjoonk 2018
- Modern Tenor, Vincent Bach 2009
- Small bore Tenor
- Modern Alto, Antoine Courtois 2011
Photo: Bart Treuren