“His combination of solo piano, strings and electronics makes for a warm, rich listen.” – Exclaim!
Though seemingly spartan in composition, the music of Dutch composer and pianist Joep Beving carry the weight of tangled, unnameable feelings. Perhaps this is precisely what Beving’s millions of listeners resonate with, described by himself as “simple music for complex emotions”.
Beving’s love for music and the piano can be traced all the way back to his childhood, enrolling into a conservatoire before an injury forced him to pivot his studies entirely. Yet, his passion burned on, and in 2009 he found an opportunity to revisit his love for music after inheriting his late grandmother’s Schimmel piano, a delicate instrument that would later inform many of his compositions. Several years later, at the age of 38, Beving began on the path that eventually led to his global success, playing and crafting minimal pieces informed by classical aesthetics and vocabulary. These pieces materialised on his debut album Solipsism, self-released in 2015 after Beving was turned down by the only label he approached. The sound of his piano found its way to the ears of Deutsche Grammophon’s A&R manager Christian Badzura, which led to the signing of Beving to the world’s foremost classical label, and consequently the release of his sophomore album Prehension in 2017. To date, Beving has been streamed over half a billion times and has sold out numerous shows around the globe, making him one of the most listened to contemporary pianists today.
2019 saw the release of Henosis, Beving’s closing chapter in a trilogy of albums, marking the end of an intensely personal four-year spiritual and philosophical exploration. Continuing his minimalist and occasionally romantic style of writing, the Dutch composer explored new territories by opening up new musical worlds using orchestral and electronic sounds alongside the familiar warmth of his beloved Schimmel piano. While Solipsism investigated the self and Prehension the individual’s relation to the collective, Henosis drew the mind’s eye even wider into the scale of the cosmos, in search of “ultimate reality and emptiness of the mind”. The album received an Edison Award within the same year of its release.
Beving’s fourth and latest record, Hermetism, sees him returning to solo piano compositions, once again in search of universal ideas. Written during the dark days of the pandemic and in an age of fear and polarisation, Hermetism blends poignant melancholy with an offer of hope, again drawing from Beving’s own philosophical explorations much like he did in his previous three albums.
Beving breathes life into these compositions and ideas on the Singapore stage for the first time, inviting fans new and old alike to experience his consummate musicianship and compelling sound live in one spellbinding evening.
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