Julian Tjon Sack Kie
Composer and Musician

Selected works:


Soliloquies of the Unknown (2025)

Concert Music


For Tenor or Soprano and Large ensemble 5“ (2024)

Commissioned by Netherlands Chamber Orchestra

Based on Humbert Wolfe’s poetry, Julian composed 'Soliloquies of the Unknown’. In this composition he explored the concept of soliloquies in a rather indirect way. Through the emotional quality of a Person, desperately trying to get answers of something ungraspable, he created solo movements and tutti gestures to enhance the world within the character.


Yu Na Mi Srefi (2025)

Film - Storytelling

Composition and Sound Design



What does it mean to grow up with roots in another culture, what does it mean when fatherhood is laced in stereotypes, without understanding the nuances, the many other stories?

In this poetic documentary, Terra Isis Gitane embarks on a journey to find answers about what it means to grow up without her Surinamese father.

 

Process of Becoming (2024)

Concert Music

For Solo or Two Violins and Electronics 7“ (2024)
Commissioned by Wonderfeel and Walden festival



Process of Becoming portrays the duality between Surinamese primary forests and Dutch secondary forests. The duality of natures’ natural structure and man-made structures serves as the main form in this piece. While the duality of introspective and expressive gestures is reflected throughout the whole piece.



Egún (2024)

Concert music


For Symphony Orchestra 7”



While retracing his steps into his ancestral lineages, Julian stumbled upon the legendary tale of the Yoruba-queen Moremi.

Inspired by this tale, he aimed to provoke a sense of catharsis by shifting between different moods. In those, he explored both dark and light colors in the orchestra to create a sense of dualism. Whereas the never-ending drive by the forces of nature, Egún (meaning ancestors), and spiritual transmissions are grounded in every gesture in this piece.



The Pollinators of Slovenia (2023)

Film - Storytelling
Composition and Sound Design

In this five-part interactive documentary, we travel through Slovenia’s thick forests of beech, fir, and maple, across rolling agricultural land and city rooftops, to discover how Slovenians are finding new ways to nurture pollinators in the age of ecological breakdown.

We visit family farms that are implementing sustainable practices, meet a forager who shares his bed with bees, learn about urban beekeeping from a rooftop beekeeper, and discover how bees breathe life into farm-to-table cuisine. Through a rich sequence of photography, moving images, and spoken word, we invite you on a journey into a land where pollinators are still held at the heart of our shared life on Earth.