Indonesian cellist and composer Alfian Emir Adytia is recognized not just for his borderless performance, but also “guts in his playing” (Den Haag Centraal Net). He moves seamlessly across a plethora of genres and disciplines which bridged classical, avant-garde, improvisation, electronics, collaboration with dance, paintings and films.
Based in The Netherlands, Emir, his middle and artist name, has appeared as a soloist and cellist in classical and contemporary music ensemble in Asia and Europe, most notably in Nationaal Jeugdhorkest, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, New European Ensemble, Atlas Lab Ensemble, World Opera Lab and ASKO Schönberg. An alumnus of Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, he performs regularly on major stages for new music, classical, jazz and cello festivals such as Cello Biënnale Amsterdam, Cello Wercken Zutphen, Jazz in de Gracht, Dag in de Branding, Amsterdam Minimal Music Festival, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Opera Forward Festival, Bachfestival Dordrecht, Museumnacht010 and Tong Tong Fair.
A member of Dutch art association De Haagse Kunstkring, Emir has been commissioned by World Opera Lab (2022), Nederlands Kamerkoor NXT (2021), Cello Academie Zutphen (2020), Jakarta City Philharmonic (2019), Orkes Mahasiswa ISI Yogyakarta (2019), Jakarta Concert Orchestra (2016) and Kompas Gramedia (2013). His music has won several prizes, nominations and appearance such as special mention in Calefax Composers Competition (Amsterdam, 2022), honorary mention in Bartók World Competition for Composition (Budapest, 2022), featured in Spitfire Audio LABS Community Playlist (London, 2022), film screening in FIVARS festival (Los Angeles & Montreal, 2022) and 1st prize in Avip Priatna Composition Competition (Jakarta, 2016). Over the course of six years, Emir has released six albums consisting of his own compositions and performances in cello, electronics and voice: Nachtmusik (2016), ANIMINIMAL (2019), Beethoven Complete Sonatas for Piano and Cello (2020), Death of Beauty (2021), Dendang (2021) and Textures (2022).
In the realm of education, Alfian Emir Adytia has been teaching privately since 2011, appointed as External Master Research Supervisor in Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag since 2022, an Amarte Fonds expert for project Keroncong Spektra, producer for Incubator 2022 CODARTS Rotterdam and founder of Lab Musik Seni (Indonesian art music research and development lab).