Merlijn Twaalfhoven

He has worked with the Kronos Quartet, Holland Festival and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and initiated festivals and collaborative projects in Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Brazil and the US. In these projects, he looked for ways to break through existing boundaries between genres and styles, as well as between population groups and cultures, and make new connections. After being involved in numerous musical and theatrical projects in cities, neighbourhoods, conflict areas, refugee camps and natural landscapes, Twaalfhoven sees himself as a creative researcher of complex social problems. In his book Het is aan ons, he shows how each of us can adopt the mindset of an artist and play a significant role in addressing world problems, major and minor.  

Twaalfhoven received a UNESCO award in 2011 as ‘Young Artist for intercultural dialogue between the Arab and Western worlds’ and was nominated for the Amsterdam Prijs voor de Kunst.