Education
Educated at the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music in The Netherlands, and King's College in London, Edward Top (1972) studied composition with Peter-Jan Wagemans and Klaas de Vries, as well as violin, music theory and analysis. He followed master classes with Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, Wolfgang Rihm, Peter Eötvös and George Benjamin.
Activities
In the late nineties, Top worked as a violinist in the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra. He taught violin, music theory and IB-music at the Bangkok String Training Institute and at the International Academy of Music 'MIFA' in Bangkok. He lives in London since 2003.
Compositions
His music is characterized by contrasts between introverted dreamscapes and primeval rawness. Music has the power to induce the listener into a state of revelry that transcends rational understanding. It is not a copy of a phenomenon but a direct copy of volition itself. However, since our collective musical culture has established musical affects or archetypes to recreate these phenomena, it is impossible to ignore this very distinctive characteristic of musical tradition. To do so would be to deny part of one's identity and background within Western culture. Top therefore consciously employs traditional gestures in his work, taking advantage of their associative power. Stylistic quotations are woven into the context of his own language in such a way that they contribute to the dramatic expression of a work. More recently, his work has become focused on the abstract expression of music itself.
His works have been commissioned and performed by the Schoenberg Ensemble, Tokyo Sinfonietta, Orchestra De Volharding, Holland Symfonia, and the Doelen Ensemble.
Prizes
Edward Top graduated in 1999 with honours from the Rotterdam Conservatory in the Netherlands. He received the first prize of the 2003 Martirano Memorial Composition Award of the University of Illinois in the USA for his first String Quartet (1998). During the Nederlandse Muziekdagen 2004 he was awarded the Henriëtte Bosmansprijs with Marble Sparks for orchestra.
