Erik Bosgraaf - About

I am extremely happy to have received the BBT Award! First of all, I have been able to expand my instrument collection notably. But more importantly, BBT manages to take away concerns not only in a financial aspect but also in supporting your career in the broadest sense. I hope many others will benefit from its generosity!

Dutch instrumentalist and conductor Erik Bosgraaf is considered to be one of the world’s most virtuosic and adventurous recorder players. Technically impeccable and equally at home in medieval, baroque and contemporary repertoire, he also plays jazz, improvises, utilises electronics and likes working with people in other areas of artistic endeavour such as cinematography. He travels the world to play solo and with leading orchestras, to indulge his passion for chamber music, to give masterclasses – and doubtless to find yet more innovative opportunities and artistic challenges. “That man can do anything!” the late, legendary recorder player and conductor Frans Brüggen once exclaimed about the young Erik.

In addition to some initial basics, such as promotional materials and website redesign, BBT contributed to Erik’s burgeoning discography by supporting two recordings featuring Vivaldi and Bach concertos, and also added to his growing portfolio of new pieces by co-commissioning works from Ji Youn Kang and Anna Meredith, plus supporting the preparation of scores and parts for the premiere of new concerto by Willem Jeths.  Showcase events were arranged by the Trust too, including BBT’s Wednesdays at Wilton’s series, where Erik also thrilled local schoolchildren with a masterclass demonstrating his varied collection of instruments. And Erik managed to involve BBT in contributing to that collection too – he commissioned some fine new recorders from leading instrument maker Ernst Meier in Paris. BBT made no fewer than three films to cover the remarkable scope of Erik’s achievements with his award fund.

Erik was supported with a BBT Award between 2009 and 2015.

For a current biography please visit erikbosgraaf.com

Read Erik’s blogs: Artemisia in Aldeburgh here; Willem Jeths’ Recorder Concerto here; Bach Revisited here; Music, honesty and craftmanship here; and Recorders, BBT and me here

Press Release: Anna Meredith Origami Songs

Photographs by Paul & Menno de Nooijer and Marco Borggreve