The Netherlands Music Prize jury about Ties Mellema: “Mellema consistently treats the listener to a new understanding of whatever piece he is playing, in jazz it known as improvisation, in classical it is called interpretation.”
At the age of eight Ties Mellema decided he wanted to play the saxophone. His father played Charlie Parker to him and he liked the sound; furthermore, the saxophone would help his asthma. It was the right choice, the instrument’s versatility suits Ties well. Many years on the works as a solo artist, he is also a chamber musician and a teacher. In 2010 he received The Netherlands Music Prize from the Dutch Performing Arts Fund, a highly prestigious recognition of his work so far.
Ties graduated from the Conservatory of Amsterdam – first and second phase – cum laude, having studied with Arno Bornkamp. He also studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with Christer Johnnson. After he graduated, Ties decided to take lessons from the cellist Anner Bijlsma. To this day this master’s musicality remains a great source of inspiration and it is the reason Ties still frequently visits him.
These days Ties is a teacher himself to students majoring in saxophone at the Fontys Conservatory in Tilburg, where he is teaching his own class.
Ties’ work as a musician is characterized by his drive to explore and push beyond the boundaries. Not only has he played many premieres of new compositions written specifically for him, he is also a fanatical arranger of music from all style periods (Bach’s oeuvre forms a continuous theme) and he is constantly searching for new crossovers with the jazz, pop and world music, theatre and dance.
This many facetted way of working has resulted in collaborations all across the globe, with musicians such as Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, Concertgebouw Tracks, MTV, the Four Baritones and Hans Dulfer.
In 2014-2015 Ties made the personal music theatre performance The End of Desire, in cooperation with director Jos van Kan, composer Ian Wilson and stage designer Michiel Voet which was performed in the Netherland and Ireland.
Ties’ drive is characterized by two major life events. In 2008 he was severely injured to his right hand after an unfortunate household accident. After rehabilitation, meditation and some modifications to his instrument he found a way to continue his career, despite the fact that the doctors told him that he would never play again.
Seven years later Ties was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and underwent an intensive chemotherapy. In 2016 Ties rehabilitated again and came back as a reborn person and musician in the course of this year.
Ties’ ambitions don’t stop at playing the saxophone and this makes him a truly contemporary artist. He also composes, arranges and is a prolific photographer (in 2015 he won the Amsterdam Fotogram award). Together with his Amstel Quartet, he founded the music label Amstel Records.
Amstel Records produces the CDs by the quartet and other musicians with the same artistic views and ideas; Ties has released four CDs under his own name with Amstel records. He is a prolific blogger on tiesmellema.nl and he has written for a number of Dutch magazines and newspapers.
