The composer Camille van Lunen was born in Amsterdam and grew up in several different European countries. After studying the viola in Brussels, she moved to The Hague to study singing and composition, which she continued in Cologne where she now lives. Her work is full of wit and color and often treats social and spiritual themes of our time.
Van Lunen’s experience as a singer is reflected in her own vivid writing for both solo voice (in the songs and operas) and in her choral works. Both illustrate her strong dramatic instinct and sensitivity to French, English and German texts, reflecting her own polyglot background.
A very practical composer, Camille van Lunen has responded to a wide variety of commissions to produce works of great originality and in a highly distinctive style, ranging from The Rock Boy (Leverkusen, 2005) for young people to O Mare Nostrum (Acht Brücken Festival Köln, 2016), an adaptation of her prize-winning O Sacrum Convivium which gives a voice to recently-arrived refugees in Cologne.
A lively wit characterises much of her chamber music, as in the humorous wind quintet Entgleist (2006) and the Songs of the British Isles (2008). Her works are both demanding and rewarding for performers and audiences alike. Hers is very much a voice for today.
In 2015-2016 Camille van Lunen was Artist in Residence at the Gulbenkian Scientific Institute (Lisbon). She is the winner of the International Composition Competition of the Mariann Steegman Foundation (2013), a finalist in the 4th Uuno Klami International Composition Competition 2019 (Finnland) and prize winner at the Biennale de Musique Vocale Contemporaine 2020: Prix du Départment de la Loire.
