Rens Machielse composes and produces sound and music for moving images such as fiction, documentary and animation in close collaboration with Willem Schneider (Studio Masch). Both have long standing and award winning careers as composer and sound designer. Rens has a particular interest in projects that offer time and space for experimentation. Experimentation with sound and music in order to provide the moving images with an extraordinary soundtrack. He likes to work with so called hybrid instrumentation: combining acoustic instruments with synthesized sounds and soundscapes. He has done so in the past with directors and producers such as Nicole van Kilsdonk, Paula van der Oest, Simone de Vries and Pieter-Rim de Kroon. His music has been awarded with a.o. the Stemra Music Award and a Gold Medal Best Original Score New York Festivals. Several examples of his music can be found on SoundCloud.

Rens Machielse gives guest lectures, master classes and workshops about sound and music for moving images. His expertise covers specific topics such as ‘the design process of the sound track’ and ‘the role of the sound track in audiovisual storytelling’. In addition, Rens has plenty experience in guiding freelancers and SME’s in setting up and developing their professional practice. Based on this experience he developed a specific master class: ‘Entrepreneurship for composers and sound designers in the audiovisual domain’. Rens has been teaching at a variety of institutions such as the Film Academy Amsterdam, the Film Academy Baden Württemberg, HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, MediaSound Hamburg and the Reid School of Music University of Edinburgh. Currently he is working on a textbook about the design process of the soundtrack. More information about his teaching experience can be found in his CV.

Rens Machielse has been leading the HKU Research Programme Music Design that investigates the different creative processes involved in music design in the broadest sense of the word. His own research focuses on ‘The design process of the composer and sound designer in audiovisual storytelling’. He is also involved as a moderator in the HKU Professorship Research in Creative Practices of Jan IJzermans.

A number of his publications can be found here.

Being the Director of HKU Music and Technology for many years Rens Machielse has gained a lot of experience in developing specific curricula within the field of music and technology. In addition he was interim-Director at HKU Design, HKU Arts and Economics and HKU Theatre. Based on this broad experience he has advised many educational institutions in Vietnam, Macedonia, Indonesia, South-Korea, Switzerland and Lithuania such as the Vietnam National Academy of Music and the Faculty of Music SS. Cyril & Methodius University Skopje. The major part of these advisory trajectories and related projects were supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EP-Nuffic or the European Union.

A general overview can be found here.

Rens Machielse has a career as a freelance composer and sound designer for performing arts and moving images. He collaborated with numerous broadcasting companies, advertising agencies, directors, animators and theatre companies and won several awards. During a workshop at the Film Academy Amsterdam, Rens discovered his passion for education and started a career as a lecturer ‘composition for media’ at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht. From that moment on, he has been busy combining and developing theory and practice in relation to the subject ‘sound and music for moving images’. Presentations, workshops, master classes and guest lectures on a national and international level, writing columns and articles, and initiating and leading international cooperation projects. He holds a BSc, a MMus and a MPhil research degree that focused on ‘interaction and collaboration in narrative postproduction’.

This involvement led, among other things, to the establishment of MIMM (Muziek Instituut MultiMedia) and BCMM (Beroepsvereniging Componisten MultiMedia) in collaboration with Loek Dikker and Bob Zimmerman. He was elected as a board member of the Dutch performance rights organisation Buma/Stemra in 2012. A position which he gave up after one year as he was offered a full time position as director of HKU Music and Technology, one of the nine HKU Schools. This school (400 students, 50 teachers) is known as one of the best music educational institutes in the Netherlands and has international fame.

Currently Rens has retired from his position as director and he is working on a textbook ‘Sound and Music for Moving Images from a Design Perspective’ (working title). Other nowadays positions and activities are chairman of the board of Gaudeamus Muziekweek, member of the editorial board of The New Soundtrack and the MIMM board, moderator in HKU Research in Creative Practices of Jan IJzermans, associate professor. Rens is also a recognized peer-reviewer at MusiQue for accreditations of higher music education.

Rens is available for:

• guest lectures and workshops on a national and international level;
• advisory work with regard to higher education in music technology or in sound and music for moving images;
• designing soundtracks for moving images in collaboration with Willem Schneider (MASCH).

You can download a full CV of Rens Machielse. You can contact Rens through mail (info@rensmachielse.nl) or phone (+31 6 3823 7630).

Here you can download Rens Machielse’s CV plus a selection of articles, interviews, etc. In addition there’s a SoundCloud-link with a variety of Rens’s music for media.

Downloads (PDF):

CV Rens Machielse

Education on Music and Technology: A program for a professional education
- Hans Timmermans, Jan IJzermans, Rens Machielse, Gerard van Wolferen, Jeroen van Iterson

Hofleverancier van jong filmmuziektalent - Interview with Score Magazine (NL)

Interaction and Collaboration in Narrative Postproduction: A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment
of the requirements of Bournemouth University, Master of Philosophy - Rens Machielse

Iteratieve processen en het belang van tussenmixage - Interview with Sander Houwen, Dutch Directors Guild (NL)

Learning to make the pictures sound good: Academic education in composition and sound design for film - Kees Went and Rens Machielse

Stemviolen en andere geluidsobjecten - Karel Berkhout (NL)

We willen iedereen gelijke kansen bieden: Interview with Rens Machielse - ScienceGuide.nl (NL)

Further links:

Rens Machielse on Soundcloud

hku muziek en technologie