Short biography
LESS THAN 100 WORDS
Praised as “quick, quirky, and rambunctious,” Ruben Naeff is a Dutch-American composer living in Brooklyn, New York. His varied background in mathematics and music led to surprising collaborations, such as De Bètacanon, a musical canon as a love song to science, which he wrote for De Volkskrant. Ruben studied with Michael Gordon and Daan Manneke, and holds degrees from NYU and the University of Amsterdam. His music has been performed across the US, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Long biography
ABOUT 400 WORDS
Praised as “quick, quirky, and rambunctious,” Ruben Naeff is a Dutch-American composer living in Brooklyn, New York.
Notable works include De Bètacanon, a musical canon as love song to science, which was commissioned by the Dutch national newspaper De Volkskrant and released as CD, in collaboration with scientists Robbert Dijkgraaf and Frits van Oostrom and cartoonist Jean-Marc van Tol. Other highlights include JACKASS which was written for the JACK Quartet, Fill the Present Day with Joy, about the love we share online, and The Dancing Dollar about the financial crisis.
As co-founder of W4 New Music, along with Molly Herron, Matt Frey and Tim hansen, he promoted the work of emerging musicians in a series of concerts, culminating in an evening-length oratorio Moby Dick, that was performed by Contemporaneous and presented by the MATA Festival.
Notable presenters include the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York and debate-and-arts festival happyChaos in Amsterdam. His music has been performed across the United States and in Hong Kong, Australia, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Latvia, Switzerland, and Austria. He closely worked with renowned musicians such as Lindsay Kesselman (Einstein on the Beach), Nicholas Photinos (Eighth Blackbird), David Friend, and Richard Valitutto, and such ensembles as Contemporaneous, Signal, Deviant Septet, JACK Quartet, Skyros Quartet, PUBLIQuartet, Wild Rumpus, Berkeley Symphony, Aspen Conductor Orchestra, Aspen’s Contemporary Ensemble and Orchestra, Vigil, Cadillac Moon Ensemble, Quatre Bouches, Erasmus Kamerkoor, and Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra Con Brio.
Ruben studied privately with Michael Gordon, Daan Manneke, and Gilius van Bergeijk, and studied composition and musicology at New York University, the University of Amsterdam, Royal Conservatory The Hague, and the Conservatory of Amsterdam. He participated in master classes by Louis Andriessen, David Lang, Augusta Read Thomas and Christopher Rouse, and attended summer programs of Aspen Music Festival, Bang on a Can, MusicX, June in Buffalo, and the UNL Chamber Music Institute. Ruben was the recipient of the prestigious HSP Huygens Scholarship for his studies at NYU, and of various grants from the Netherland-America Foundation, Jerome Fund for New Music, Van Bijleveltstichting and the Fonds voor de Geld- en Effectenhandel. He has received recognition in competitions by Wild Rumpus, Ethel/ClefWorks, Golden Hornet, Renegade Ensemble, Hartford Opera Theatre, Center City Opera Theatre, Platypus Ensemble, Andrew Gerlicher and the UvA Cultural Festival.
Ruben holds an M.S. in mathematics from the University of Amsterdam, and works as a data scientist in tech. He is married and has two children.