Biography

"Boomsma’s playing of these charming miniatures is never overstated. He wisely allows their straightforward simplicity to speak without affectation."

Gramophone on ‘Gerhard Hamm Rediscovered’

Camiel Boomsma is praised by both the press and the public for his remarkable maturity, extraordinarily beautiful timbre and distinctive touch. His personal and unique way of playing has brought him to many beautiful concert venues. Boomsma has performed at most of the Netherlands’ most renowned concert halls as well as numerous prestigious international venues and series, including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Schloss Elmau, Bayreuth, Teatro la Fenice in Venice and St. John’s Smith Square in London.
Camiel Boomsma has successfully collaborated with many renowned musicians, including pianist Severin von Eckardstein, with whom he has performed several duo recitals. An extensive solo recital tour through China presented him with a unique opportunity to perform in six of this country’s most prestigious concert halls (Shanghai City Theatre, Tanjin Grand Theatre, Harbin Concert Hall, Nanjing Arts Center, Chongqing Concert Hall and Chengdu Concert Hall), resulting into a renewed invitation. Boomsma has also been a regular guest at international festivals such as the Amsterdam Grachtenfestival (he was nominated for the Grachtenfestival Prijs in 2018) and the Musica Sacra Festival in Maastricht.

As a chamber musician, Boomsma has performed in all possible constellations, including a regular piano trio with Michael Stirling and Joris van Rijn, principal cellist and concertmaster of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, respectively. Currently, Camiel also performs as a duo with clarinettist Marieke Vos, with whom he set up the Mirantibus Foundation in 2020 with a view to launching a new chamber music series (the Mirantibus Concerten). Mirantibus quickly grew into a tremendous success and received rave reviews from the press. Boomsma regularly works together with Dutch composer Joey Roukens, whose ‘Summer Preludes’ for solo piano he recently premiered.

Boomsma’s ‘Wagner Journey’ was greeted with tremendous international acclaim, leading to a prestigious grant from the International Wagner Stiftung in 2013 and giving him a unique opportunity to attend the Bayreuther Festspiele. He made his daring album debut that same year, for which he discovered many rarely performed piano transcriptions. He surprised the press and the public with his profound understanding of Wagner’s music at such a young age. His recordings Transcriptions for Piano and Porazzi for Etcetera Records received rave reviews in the BBC Music magazine, Diapason, Trouw, NRC, De Volkskrant and many other publications.

For his album Musings in 2017, he chose poetic and romantic repertoire by Chopin and Schubert, which greatly impressed his audience in concert. This album was released on Challenge Records International and has been compared with recordings by Radu Lupu and Marc-André Hamelin. Leading Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant wrote: ‘Boomsma’s fingers have a velvet touch’.
His album Unfold, featuring works by Liszt and Schubert, was received by the press with tremendous acclaim: ‘You‘re constantly holding your breath with this romantic magician, waiting for the next note to come.’ In June 2021, Boomsma released his new album Rediscovered’, which is dedicated to the forgotten music of Dutch composer Gerhard Hamm (1835-1904). The recording was received with great enthusiasm and interest by British Gramophone, Belgian daily newspaper De Standaard and Italian RAI3, among others. Boomsma’s book Brieven aan de Meesters (informal translation: Letters to the Masters) was published by Uitgeverij IJzer on 16 November 2021 and labelled one of the eye-catching releases of that year by national newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

His new album Heritage of Fire is due to be released in 2023 and is devoted to new Wagner transcriptions as well as Liszt’s B minor Sonata.

Programmes

Programme proposals

Wagner and Liszt: Heritage of Fire

Music by the Masters

Silent/Listen

Summer Preludes

Other repertoire available on request

Concertos

Concerto Repertoire

Media

LISTEN

Video

Schubert D960, II Andante bij Vrije Geluiden (Live)

Chopin Nocturne Op.48

Debussy (Live)