composer • lecturer • researcher • advisor
Rens Machielse composes and produces music for moving images such as fiction, documentary and animation in close collaboration with sound designer Willem Schneider (Studio Masch). Both have long standing and award winning careers as composer and sound designer. Rens Machielse's music has been awarded with a.o. the Stemra Music Award, a Gold Medal Best Original Score New York Festivals, and nominations for Best Music Gouden Kalf Dutch Filmfestival and The Peer Raben Music Award. Below you will find some recent examples of the more than 200 projects that Rens Machielse has to his name.
Latest compositions
Rens Machielse gives guest lectures, master classes and workshops about sound and music for moving images. His expertise covers specific topics such as ‘the design process of the sound track’ and ‘the role of the sound track in audiovisual storytelling’. Rens has been lecturing at a variety of institutions such as the Film Academy Amsterdam, the Film Academy Baden Württemberg, HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, the Reid School of Music University of Edinburgh, the Master The Sound of Innovation of ArtEZ, the Summerschool Utrecht, MediaSound Hamburg, and SAE Auckland, New Zealand. Rens is also involved in MusiQue accreditations as a panel member. More information about his teaching experience can be found in his CV.
Rens Machielse has been leading the HKU Research Programme Music Design that investigates the different creative processes involved in music design in the broadest sense of the word. His own research focuses on ‘The design process of the composer and sound designer in audiovisual storytelling’. His book The Sound Track about the design processes of the sound designer and the media composer is published by International Theatre & Film Books in collaboration with HKU Press and co-financed by the Dutch Filmfund. The Dutch version is presented in February 2020 at the EYE Filmmuseum, the English version is presented in May 2020. Both books are available through regular and online bookshops such as Amazon DE and Amazon UK. More information including a number of reviews can be found at The Sound Track. Nowadays, Rens is developing the interactive website "De kunst van ontwerponderwijs" in close collaboration with his former colleague Jan IJzermans, which has premiered in the autumn of 2024. A number of his other publications can be found at download & links.
Being the Director of HKU Music and Technology for many years Rens Machielse has gained a lot of experience in developing specific curricula within the field of music and technology. In addition he was interim-Director at HKU Design, HKU Theatre and at HKU Arts and Economics. Based on this broad experience he has advised many educational institutions in Vietnam, Macedonia, Indonesia, South-Korea, Switzerland and Lithuania such as the Vietnam National Academy of Music and the Faculty of Music SS. Cyril & Methodius University Skopje. The major part of these advisory trajectories and related projects were supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EP-Nuffic or the European Union. From 2021 on, he is producing for MiMM the online magazine Private Kitchen about mediamusic together with Sebastiaan Donders and Ivo Witteveen. A general overview can be found in his CV.