Edward Ferdinand: Diabelli-Contest 2016

Edward Ferdinand Edward Ferdinand

Edward Ferdinand (1969) is a dutch composer, lyricist and pianist. He has studied Recording Technique and Classical Piano at the conservatories of The Hague and Utrecht (The Netherlands). He also attended screenwriting workshops at the Flanders Script Academy (Bruxelles, Belgium). Since he graduated he has been engaged in a wide range of musical and theatrical activities.

Composition

As a composer he has written and performed music for the musical theatre, for dance performances and for piano solo. In 2006, with his own foundation 'MusicalWorks', he artistically directed a performance of his musical theatre piece Poets (a dramatization of the lives of two fourteenth century french poets). He also produced one of his own full scale musicals, The Snow Queen, for which he wrote the lyrics and the book as well. It was well received by the press. He has composed and performed/staged music and smaller musical theatre pieces for performances at several educational institutions in the Netherlands.

Pianist/accompanist

Edward has extensive experience in accompanying ballet and singers. His employers have included the Nederlands Dans Theater (The Hague, The Netherlands), Scapino Ballet (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (The Hague, The Netherlands). He also worked for Opera Spanga and the National Opera Academy, also situated in The Netherlands.

Edward has worked with a lot of vocalists, both professional and amateur, in a variety of musical styles; from opera to Broadway musicals, from Bach to Beatles, and from belcanto to belt repertoire.

With his wife Johanna, who is a classical sporano, he is currently preparing a CD with new work for voice and piano.

Lyrics/ book

Edward has written musical theatre pieces of different sizes, from mini musicals for educational purposes, to full scale musicals. For many of these pieces he wrote the music, book and lyrics.



Prizes

In 2012 Edward was nominated for the Willem Wilmink Prize in Enschede (The Netherlands), a prize for the best dutch children's song of the past two years. In 2011 he was awarded the first prize at the Otto-Ditscher Art Prize in Ludwigshafen (Germany) for ‘Colors’, a work for woodwind quintet, brass quintet and large concert band. In 2000 Edward won a pirst accessit at the Concours Musical de France (Paris, France) for classical piano playing. The works he played were by Mozart, de Falla, Berio, Scarlatti, Liszt and Debussy.