Hans Leeuw

At the HKU Hans teaches a wide range of subjects mostly within the ‘sounddesign’ tract. His expertise is the use of hardware in live electronic performance and the involved design processes but he also teaches performance in general, trumpet, complex rhythm, system design and psychoacoustics.

Hans Leeuw (1965) is a trumpet player and composer. He has been active in the world of Jazz and Improvisation music since 1990, most noteworthy as the bandleader of the Tetzepi Bigtet: a 15-piece Big Band that only plays originals. Hans received a number of commissions to write for this band and occasionally other ensembles.

Since 2007 Hans developed the Electrumpet; a new hyper instrument combining the acoustic and digital controls on a trumpet in such a way that the expressive qualities are blended. The Electrumpet won the Guthman price for new musical instruments at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia in 2013 (the unofficial world champignonship for new musical instruments). Hans received a grant from the Dutch government to further develop the instrument in a solo programme through composition in 2015.

Hans not only works at the HKU but also at the Technical University Eindhoven in the Netherlands (Faculty Industrial Design). He follows a PhD with Pierre Alexandre Tremblay at the University of Huddersfield where he researches the integration of performance practise within the design of new musical instruments. Hans is a member of the NIME community (New Interfaces for Musical Expression) and he regularly performs or publishes at the annual conference.

At the HKU Hans teaches a wide range of subjects mostly within the ‘sounddesign’ tract. His expertise is the use of hardware in live electronic performance and the involved design processes but he also teaches performance in general, trumpet, complex rhythm, system design and psychoacoustics.

Publications