Arctic Ocean Johan Nijs

The Belgian composer Johan Nijs was born in Louvain on June 11, 1963. At age ten he began studying music and earned degrees in clarinet, piano, accordion, solfeggio, harmony and chamber music at various music academies. He then went to the Brussels Royal Conservatory of Music where he was awarded several prizes for solfeggio, harmony, counterpoint, wind band conducting, history of music, transposition, clarinet and piano. He has composed since age sixteen and has won numerous international composition prizes. Today Nijs is not only active as a composer and arranger, but also as guest-conductor and adjudicator. He is also a clarinetist with the Royal Band of the Belgian Air Force. His principal teachers and mentors were André Waignein and Jean Segers.