Download composing is a compulsion for freestyle master

PROFILE
COMPOSING
IS A COMPULSION
FOR FREESTYLE
MASTER
JOOST
PETERS
Give this Dutchman a piano, a video and just
a few weeks time, and he’ll dream up a dressage
test the world will watch for years to come.
C
omposing soundtracks for
the world’s top Grand Prix
freestyles is a niche within a
niche—a career that barely
exists outside of the one individual performing it. But six
years ago that job chose Joost Peters, and there’s
no escaping its clutches now.
22 AP R I L / MAY 2011 TH E CH RON ICLE C ON N ECTION
The musician and composer from Hooge
Mierde, the Netherlands, was the magic behind
the dance of Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas when they won the gold at the Alltech FEI
World Equestrian Games (Ky.) in October, a freestyle which the whole world watched.
But just a decade ago, Peters didn’t even know
what a freestyle was.
ARND BRONKHORST PHOTO
By TANIA EVANS
Dutch composer
Joost Peters is
the mastermind
behind many of the
world’s top Grand
Prix freestyles.
profile
“There’s also a lot of interest from Asia,” Peters
said. “It’s a shame I can only do about 12 kurs a
year!
“And of course I’ve made music for a lot of
Dutch riders like Imke Schellekens-Bartels, Hans
Peter Minderhoud, Edward Gal and Mischa
Koot,” Peters added. “And Mischa also became my
wife! We have two kids now, Nina and Sebastiaan.”
Like It Was magic
VIDeO: watch the freestyle that made Joost Peters famous, “the
Queen kur,” performed by Laurens Van Lieren and hexagons ollright at
the 2008 feI world Cup final in ’s-hertogenbosch, the netherlands.
“I was running a recording studio together with
a friend who was training horses,” said Peters, 40.
“Since recording bands wasn’t a big business at
the time—this was the time when home recording studios became affordable for the common
people—my friend suggested I make a freestyle
for a client of his.
“Since then, things evolved fast,” Peters continued. “I did a lot of young rider kurs, pony and
junior level kurs. Since they were pretty successful,
the senior riders became interested.”
Incidentally, the small town of Hooge Mierde
plays host to the annual Global Dressage Forum,
and Dutch superstar Imke Schellekens-Bartels
is based there. So Peters didn’t have to look far
beyond his own front yard for inspiration. His
international breakthrough at Grand Prix came in
2005 with “The Queen Kur,” set to Queen’s rock
anthems, for Dutch stars Laurens van Lieren and
Hexagon’s Ollright.
Six years later, Peters has now worked with riders in Brazil, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Switzerland,
Germany, Belgium, Indonesia and Denmark.
He’s helped U.S. riders like Lindsey AndersonO’Keefe, and this year he’ll be producing new
freestyles for Canadian Grand Prix riders Belinda
Trussell and Ashley Holzer.
24 AP R I L / MAY 2011 Th e ch ron icle c on n ecTion
Peters didn’t just emerge from nowhere bursting
with natural talent—he started in music as a child.
“I played all sorts of musical instruments, beginning when I was 4,” he said. “I liked the bass guitar
the best. Today I write words and music for many
instruments, chamber groups and orchestras.”
He’s also sold more than 140,000 DVDs of his
upbeat, multi-themed compositions for children,
in many of which he also sings, and licenses most
of them through the Playama Company, which
works with multimedia entities such as Disney
and Efteling. For mainstream adult audiences, he
performs, collaborates, records, backtracks for live
performances and more.
“When my success as a composer and producer
increased, I decided to stop doing the intensive
live gigs and concentrated on the studio work,”
Peters said. “I do still play in a band, but not to
make a living anymore. Just for fun!”
When it comes to starting a freestyle, his creative method is unique. Peters’ process starts the
moment he first sees the horse.
“While I’m behind the piano, the ideas flow
out of my head like it was magic,” he said. “I don’t
know where it is coming from. And since I always
compose while I look at the video of a horse, the
music sort of automatically fits with the horse. Of
course, I’ve learned a lot in the past 10 years, but I
was lucky to learn quickly what worked and what
didn’t work in a freestyle. And I am very happy
that the judges as well as the audiences like it.”
Peters said it usually takes about four weeks to
produce a freestyle. Once the music is written, he
records a sample bass/synthesizer version so the
rider can test its fit to every footfall. Once he’s
sure the music fits the horse 100 percent, Peters
goes to a bigger studio to record live instruments—drums, guitars and brass sections, and
depending on the budget, a string section.
For the “Artemis In Motion Freestyle,”
produced with Elton John in 2008 for Richard
Davison and Hiscox Artemis of Great Britain,
he had the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Orchestra available.
“There were 70 musicians doing a one-take
recording, unique in the history of musical
freestyles,” Peters said. “Also it was the first kur
not to be recorded in a recording studio but in a
real concert hall. It was a great experience—one
most composers only can dream of.”
At the premiere of the freestyle at the Olympia
Horse Show in London, Peters had the privilege
of sitting between Prince Edward and Sir Tim
Rice to watch Artemis perform the test for the
first time.
“I can tell you it was one of the most nervewracking experiences of my life, but also a very
special one,” he said.
A Labor of Love
thIs PAge: VIdeo CouRtesY of Joost PeteRs
Peters couldn’t be at the WEG last fall to see
his creations (in addition to Gal and Totilas’, he
also produced Schellekens-Bartels’ freestyle with
Sunrise) on display—he was finishing two other
freestyles and couldn’t spare the time out of the
country. But he watched them on TV.
“That’s also a weird experience, to see your kur
being performed at the other side of the globe,”
he said. “The only thing I could do was keep my
fingers crossed. It was a thrilling experience.”
While he wishes he could always be there in
person to watch his labors of love in all their glory,
Peters said making the leap to riding or competing
has never been a dream of his.
“Instead I’ve bought an old-timer Porsche 911,
which I park in a garage when I don’t find the
time to drive it,” he joked.
“The good thing is that I can concentrate on
what will be seen and heard by the judges and
audience,” he continued. “I never sit behind the
piano watching a video of a freestyle and think,
‘I wish I was on that horse.’ I just think, ‘How do
I get this horse to look even more fantastic? How
do I get the judges to have goosebumps, and how
do I get the audience standing on their seats?’
Those are my goals. And if it works out right, the
rider is happy, the judge is happy, the audience is
happy… and then I’m happy.”
HIS NEWEST
CREATION
VIDeO: Check
out behind-thescenes footage
of Joost Peters’
latest recording
session with the
royal Liverpool
Philharmonic
orchestra in
march.
Joost Peters’ latest big
project was commissioned
by one of Britain’s foremost
owners, the Countess of
Derby, for her Grand Prix
pair, richard Davison and hiscox Artemis.
Peters composed the freestyle in partnership with rock singer robbie Williams and
songwriter Guy Chambers, who’s composed for the likes of tina turner, Kylie
minogue and Katie melua. they recorded
it with the royal Liverpool Philharmonic
orchestra on march 1.
“it was a very big project with over 100
people working on it,” Peters said. “it is
quite exciting standing in front of a big
world renowned symphonic orchestra as it
starts to play your music!”
Davison and Artemis debuted the
new freestyle at the end of march in
‘s-hertogenbosch, the netherlands, at the
last Western european League qualifier
for the reem Acra fei World Cup final.
they placed seventh on 70.97 percent
and earned a spot at the final in Leipzig,
Germany, in late APriL/mAy.
“the olympic gold medalist [Anky van
Grunsven], when she heard this music
yesterday in holland, came up to say she’s
actually sick with jealousy that i got this
one,” Davison told the BBC in an interview
afterward. “So i know how lucky i am!”