Johan de Meij

Johan De Meij was educated at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, as a student of band conducting and the trombone. He gained a reputation after graduation as a skilled arranger of both popular and classical music, but it was his work as a composer that brought him his widest recognition, beginning in 1988 with his Symphony No. 1 "The Lord of the Rings", written for symphonic band and inspired by the Lord of the Rings literary trilogy of J. R. R. Tolkien. First performed in Brussels on March 15, 1988, it later won the first prize, from among 143 entries, in the Sudler Interna...