STEIM – Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music

The opera Reconstructie premiered in 1969 and is written by a collective including writers Hugo Claus and Harry Mulisch and the composers Louis Andriessen, Reinbert de Leeuw, Misha Mengelberg, Peter Schat and Jan van Vlijmen. It was not a traditional symphony orchestra that was used for this opera. Instead it was a comprehensive instrumental ensemble complemented by electronics: not only tape, but also live electronics such as sound distortion. The recently founded STEIM (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music) – by the aforementioned composers and Dick Raaijmakers and Konrad Boehmer - played an important role. The majority of the founders soon went back to ‘normal’ composing. When Louis Andriessen wrote his opera Writing to Vermeer (1999) he asked his former student Michel van der Aa to make the electronic interplays.

STEIM still exists today. After Peter Schat and Misha Mengelberg (1970s), Michel Waisvisz was director for many years until his death in 2008. He is generally recognized as being the first to invent a practice for ecstatic live performance with live electronic instruments.

 [Sources: Jacqueline Oskamp – Radicaal gewoon (2003), www.steim.org]