Wil Offermans, born in Maastricht, Holland, graduated from the Brabants Conservatory, Holland, in classical flute as well as in improvised music. In 1985/1986 he made a seven month world-wide flute-performance titled Round About 12.5. This solo project took him to 18 countries (in Europe, Africa, Asia, North & South America) not only for concerts, but also to research many ethnic flutes. He has performed his music extensively in many different situations all over the world, both as a soloist as well as with musicians like Tetsu Saito; Moteteru Takagi; Michihiro Sato; Sawai Kazue; Takehisa Kosugi; Llorenc Barber; Paul Termos; Jack Palinckx a.o. With Junko Ueda (biwa & voice) he performed e.g. in Europe, in the US and Canada, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Colombia and Indonesia at festivals like Festival d'été de Quebec; Musique Action Nancy and the Singapore Festival of Arts.
With the intention to stimulate the contemporary and intercultural approach concerning flute playing he created the foundation The Magic Flute and a flute ensemble, which toured Japan in 1997. In 1998 he founded the Contemporary European Flute Ensemble eWave, uniting players from all over Europe. In 2001 he composed the citizens involving Dejima Suite for the celebration of the 400 year relationship Holland-Japan (Nagasaki). In 2003, eWave started a European project with GRAME, Lyon (5 new European live-electronic compositions), for which he composed OnTheMove (commission Gaudeamus). He recorded on E-Records, BVHaast, and VDE-Gallo and his compositions have been published by Musikverlag Zimmermann (Germany); Doblinger (Austria); Zenon (Japan) and Sejong Publishers (Korea).
Offermans has given his flute workshops in numerous settings including the Hague Royal Conservatory, Holland; Hochschule Hamburg, Germany; Conservatoire Royal de Mons, Belgium; University of Music, Vienna, Austria; New England Conservatory Boston, USA; University of Michigan, USA; Kunitachi College of Music Tokyo, Japan; Shanghai Conservatory, China; Seoul University, Korea; Frankfurt Flute Festival, Germany; Flute Festival Boswil, Switzerland; the US Flute Convention 2003 (Las Vegas) and the Japan Flute Convention 2003 (Fukuoka). Since more than 15 years Offermans has been presenting a "flute day event" for amateur groups and children, especially at music schools throughout Europe and Asia. Since 1992 he is organizing an annual Flute Summer Course. Since 1997 he developed the Thumpy® flute: an exciting thumb flute for educational as well as performance purpose and an enjoyable alternative for both flutists and children. In 2001, he was a flute teacher at the Brabants Conservatory, Holland. He has been awarded with the Kuiper prize 2002 of the Dutch Flute Society.
Offermans also has been active in a wider cultural field of promoting and producing multicultural art projects especially towards Japan. In 2003 he started a working studio in Granada, Spain. Since 2000 he is organizing the annual intercultural project 12xHolland introducing Dutch artists to Japan. In 2007 he initiated another intercultural project with Japan named BSXCaravan.
Click here for an overview of his main compositions.
Click here for an overview of his concert repertoire.
Click here for an overview of his main recordings.
Main instruments
- C-flute: Kotato & Fukushima 18 K gold; open-hole keys; B-foot joint; additional open-thumb
- C-flute: Haynes silver, open-hole keys; B-foot joint; additional open-thumb; Lafin headjoint (9 K / silver)
- Bass flute in C: Kotato & Fukushima, b foot-joint; open-keys (thumb; A; G and E); trill-keys
- Contrabass flute in C: Kotato & Fukushima, b foot-joint; trill-keys
- Thumb flute: Thumpy, serial# 1; blackwood