Thom Willems

Thom Willems is a Dutch composer who creates mainly for ballet. He has worked with William Forsythe since 1985, creating music for more than sixty-five works. Initially, Willem worked with rhythmically manipulated sound recordings in his electronic music and music collages until the late 1980s. In the meantime, the composer works with state-of-the-art computer technology. In 1987 he achieved his international breakthrough with the piece "In The Middle, Somewhat Elevated", which he created together with Forsythe for nine dancers of the Paris Opera. Other key works include the compositions for "LDC", "The Questioning of Robert Scott", "Eidos: Telos" and "Self meant to Govern". Thom Willem's works, in conjunction with Forsythe's choreography, are included in the repertoire of major ballet companies worldwide. In 1997, William Forsythe's short film "Solo" was presented with his music as part of the Whitney Biennial. In addition, fashion designers such as Issey Miyake and Versace use Willems compositions for their shows and in 2000 he composed for the opening of the Tate Modern in London. In 2007 Thom Willems was involved in Tadao Ando's research center for design "21_21 Design Sight" in Tokyo, and in 2008 in Matthew Ritchie's installation "The Morning Line" for the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.