Donemus Webshop — Merwijk, Willem van (Guillermo Lago)

Willem van Merwijk (Bemmel, The Netherlands, 1960) is co-founder of the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet and has been playing the baritone saxophone in this group from 1982 till 2014. In 2014, after having performed over 30 years with the Quartet, van Merwijk decided to leave the group, his goodbye concerts being two concerts with Branford Marsalis in the spring of 2014.
Mr. Van Merwijk is a member of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble since 1990 and regularly performing, composing and arranging for this group. Amongst other things he performed over 25 times at the group’s famous annual New Year’s Concert in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Big Hall.
Mr. van Merwijk is very passionate about teaching. He is currently professor of saxophone methodics and saxophone at the CvA Amsterdam and professor of arranging at the HKU Utrecht.
Guillermo Lago (1960) is musician Willem van Merwijk's composing alter ego. In the course of a decade Lago has written over 60 compositions of which about a fourth has been recorded on CD/DVD. His work is being performed worldwide (in over a 100 countries). His most performed pieces are ‘Ciudades’ for saxophone or clarinet quartet, ‘Consecuencias’ for alto sax and string quartet and ‘Visíon Apocalíptica II’ for bass trombone and harp.
In 2011 Lago was invited to write the yearly composition at National Memorial Day in the Netherlands that was performed before an audience including HRH Queen Beatrix and broadcasted live on national TV and radio.
In 2013 Lago wrote ‘l’Entrata del Re’ for the coronation of H.M. King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands, live broadcasted and watched by a worldwide audience.
In 2018 his alto sax concerto ‘Leyendas’ was premiered at the World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb by Arno Bornkamp and the Croatian RTV Orchestra.