Welcome to the website of

Béla Braack

Composer, writer & artistic director

Interdisciplinary music for new audiences – about the questions of our time

Béla Braack sitting in the heather under a tree, smiling

About

Béla Braack

Composer, writer & artistic director

Béla Braack laughing, a pencil between his teeth, in front of a red curtain

Artistic vision

Composing people is my favourite part of composing

My main compositional material is not sound, but human creative potential. To me, composing means “bringing together”: the right people, the important story, the immersive atmosphere and the music it requires for the specific moment.

My work explores how the musical language of “classical” opera can coexist with the worlds of jazz, groove, pop, games and immersive electronic music. I want to create music that is emotionally immediate, thought-provoking, accessible and alluring – without sacrificing any artistic complexity.

In new forms such as the “Opical”, a mix of musical and opera, I combine the possibilities of emotional depth in ensemble music, the dramatic storytelling of opera, the accessibility of musical theatre and the immersive potential of electronic music to engage a new generation of audiences.

Teaching

Teaching is a crucial part of my practice: as the Associate Coordinator of the Master Immersive Audio at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam I have the pleasure to assist young and highly creative minds on their own artistic journey, find their artistic paths together and shape the curriculum of the Master’s programme to their needs.

Background

Originally I’m from Hamburg, and, as is only proper, still in love with my beautiful hometown. For six years I lived in Hanover, where I studied philosophy alongside my jazz studies. Out of that I founded the ensemble LIONMAN, and as its frontman I spent quite a few years throwing philosophical ideas at my audience. Then in 2019 I applied to study in Amsterdam, to dive deep once more, this time into the world of classical composition and the fine craft of writing for acoustic instruments and ensembles. This, combined with my love for storytelling and theatre, shaped my professional path.

I’m a real extrovert. I love talking to all kinds of people and going to events and concerts. My bike sprints through Amsterdam regularly get interrupted when I run into someone I know and feel the urgent need for a quick catch-up. I’m passionate about table football, and by now I play in the German Bundesliga for Arminia Bielefeld and for KGB Hannover. In winter I go ski touring, and for many years I worked as a ski instructor in Austria. The rest of the year you’ll find me on longboards, inline skates or anything else that rolls.

Prizes & awards

  • Finalist · Carmen Mateu Young Artist European Award Opera competition – with “DELULU”
  • Audience Award · TROMP Percussion Competition 2022 – with “Er & Sie”, music theatre for two percussionists
  • Winner · Competition for Young Composers Reian de Waal Foundation, 2022 – with “Song for a Horse”
  • Scholarship · Cusanuswerk Scholarship holder 2021–2026
  • Kinder- und Jugendkulturpreis Maritim-Stiftung, 2019 – with “Fantastische Teens”
  • HUGO Competition for Concert Dramaturgy Austria, 2019 – 2nd place, audience award and recognition award

Works

Music

Teaching

Teaching

Education is an essential part of my artistic work: it is about creating an environment in which young musicians, theatre makers and sound artists discover new ways of finding themselves – and the people they want to work with

Conservatorium van Amsterdam

Master Immersive Audio

As Associate Coordinator of the Master Immersive Audio I work closely with the students and accompany each of them on their own artistic path. I play a substantial part in shaping the curriculum and initiate interdisciplinary projects that bring sound artists together with composers, musicians and theatre makers.

Master Immersive Audio at the CvA ↗ Six people in a recording studio looking into the camera, Béla Braack kneeling in the front row

Fantastische Teens · Hamburg

Writing workshops for teenagers

Fantastische Teens is a Hamburg initiative, founded by Annette Pauw in 2009, that has brought creative writing to more than 3,000 young people. I lead workshops in which school classes find words for what moves them – and the courage to read them out loud.

In 2024 the initiative received the Elbschwanenorden ↗, the language prize of the Verein Deutsche Sprache.

fantastischeteens.de ↗
A student reads his text into a microphone in a gallery, in front of a landscape painting and a listening audience

Stories about pictures 2024

Fifteen tenth-graders spent a week in a Hamburg gallery, writing about works from Polke to Blair: memories, associations, effects. They began in their strongest languages, translated into German, swapped words, rearranged passages and gave each other feedback – and finally read their texts at the microphone, on the gallery’s opening day even in front of strangers.

Read the report (in German) ↗
Group photo of a school class with Béla Braack kneeling in front

Perspectives from above 2025

High above the rooftops of Hamburg, in the bunker on Feldstraße, texts emerged about memory, the future and the variety of young perspectives.

“Once again I witnessed how the differences between young people create cohesion, openness and inspiration in no time – as soon as the setting encourages them to speak up.”

Read the report (in German) ↗

One to one

Private Composition Lessons

Since 2020 I have been giving private composition lessons, among others to students of the Academy of Theatre and Dance in Amsterdam. Just like in my writing workshops for Fantastische Teens, the heart of it is learning to tell their own stories in music. Together we look for that form: a song, a scene, a piece for an ensemble, or something that doesn’t have a name yet.

The craft matters, of course: harmony, melody, form, how to write for voices and instruments, and how tools like text and music can carry each other. Whether you are just beginning or already writing your own pieces, my goal is that my students leave each lesson with new fire and tools to tell their own stories.

Instrumentalist

Piano, Singer & Percussion

Jazz Piano, Funk, Drums, Percussion – the groove that also forms my compositions

2016 – 2019 · Singer, piano, composition

Lionman

My own jazz ensemble, founded in 2016 and my main musical project for years: stories about philosophical journeys, told with groove, jazz and scenic elements – with me as composer, singer and pianist.

Die Welt dreht sich April Sounds Regensong In Verantwortung der Liebe

Official live sessions, 2017, and “In Verantwortung der Liebe” from the finals of the HUGO competition of the Montforter Zwischentöne – the videos open on YouTube.

Current band · Percussion

Eb en Vloed

On stage as percussionist with my current band.

Ze werd er wie ze was Als de pont naar huis gaat

Live videos – they open on YouTube.

Photography

Photography

Available for portraits, solo shots and ensemble photos

Trans-Siberian Train

Four travellers in 1940s clothes in a station restaurant, looking up in surprise A man in a tweed three-piece suit sitting at a table in a wood-panelled hall The four travellers looking out through a window, reflections on the glass The four travellers with their luggage in a narrow corridor

Paul & Hannah

Two recorder players in fur coats in front of a golden wall The two recorder players in patterned shirts in front of a spiral staircase A recorder player with pink hair looking through the bars of a cage

Hannah

A recorder player in white, the instrument resting on her shoulder The recorder player smiling, pointing her instrument at the camera The recorder player holding her instrument upright The recorder player sitting on wooden steps

Echos of Nothing

The trio around a round table, seen from above The trio standing on a wooden floor, seen from above A member of the trio laughing, leaning forward A member of the trio sitting on a wooden chair

Job & Ensemble

Four musicians laughing around a cello, each holding a bow or mallet A cellist looking past his bow Three friends playing one cello together with its cellist

Johanna

A recorder player in a black dress, a second recorder blurred in front The recorder player with her instrument on her shoulder A baroque oboist in a red blouse in a dark street Johanna smiling, a shawm with a brass bell across her shoulders

Madeline & Stefani

A woman in a green dress holds a round mirror in which two other women are reflected A dancer in white on a dark stage, reaching towards the camera A woman on the floor looks into the camera, her face reflected in a round mirror

Fatima & Isabelle

Two women sitting back to back on a bench in a bare hall, one holding a violin A violinist with a blue headband leaning against a concrete wall, eyes closed A woman in a flowered blouse and a red headband

Jeroen

A laughing man in a dark coat, a yellow funnel like a halo behind his head A man in a dark blue coat looking to the side in front of a rust-coloured facade Jeroen laughing, holding a saxophone

Masks

A woman looks straight into the camera, surrounded by white masks The woman, hair down, looks past the masks

Trio on the stairs

Three musicians on wooden steps, seen from above, one lying down A woman in a teal shirt standing by wooden stairs

Duo Emanuel & Joana

A guitarist and a cellist on a red scooter in a meadow, the cello over his shoulder The guitarist laughing while the cellist plays, bent over his instrument

Portraits of Mees

A woman with windswept grey hair leaning on a green longboard Close-up: she rests her chin on her hand, a yellow ring on her finger She rolls her eyes and sticks out her tongue, light drawings behind her She speaks, one hand raised

Ana & Nuno

A young man in a pink polo shirt and a young woman in a green dress in front of a painted wall The young woman with glasses in front of a colourful graffiti wall The two looking out from between vine leaves

Wytze

A man with glasses and tousled hair looking to the side He looks up, his face lit warmly from the side Close-up from above: he looks down, hair falling over his glasses
Request a shoot

Contact

Get in touch

For productions and commissions, teaching, concerts and photo shoots

info@belabraack.com Instagram ↗ LinkedIn ↗
Béla Braack at a round table, seen from above, writing “Who today?” on it in chalk