Extreme makeover johan de meij biography

4BR has been listening to this year's cracking new test piece from the pen of Johan de Meij, Extreme Make-Over - Metamorphosis on a Theme of Tchaikovsky.

This is a cracker of a test piece. Over the years the European Championships has had its fair share of the good, the bad and the downright awful when it comes to the set pieces it has posed for the bands to play, but this is certainly one that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as �St. Magnus' and �Montreux Wind Dances' of the pieces in recent years that have been of the top most quality.

The piece itself is inspired by a number of musical references from the compositional output of the great Russian � most notably the Andante Cantabile (the second movement) of his String Quartet No 1 in D, Opus 11, which was written in 1871) � the one that brought tears to the eyes of Tolstoy when he heard it played in 1876.

Johan de Meij is an extre