Peter Adriaansz was born in Seattle in 1966 and studied composition at the conservatories of The Hague and Rotterdam, where his teachers included Louis Andriessen, Brian Ferneyhough and Peter-Jan Wagemans. Cited frequently as ‘one of the most singular composers active in the Netherlands
at the moment’ Adriaansz’ work can be characterized by a systematic, research-oriented approach towards music. An approach in which sound, structure, harmony, and audible mathematics constitute the main ingredients. In the words of Bob Gilmore: ‘If music can be a medium in which to explore the most profound existential questions, as the medieval scholars believed it could, then each generation must rephrase these questions to make them relevant to their own time. Few contemporary composers have delved so fearlessly into this realm as has Peter Adriaansz. His work is abstract music of a high order, reanimating the mediaeval idea of music as applied number: but the questions it asks are defiantly of the twenty-first century, questions about musical perception, about the nature of sound and the passage of time’.

Several of his works were nominated for various prizes, such as Chant Ascendant, for the 1994 International Gaudeamus Composers Competition and Waves 5-7, Verdichtingen and Three Studies on Elevation; selected in 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively for the Dutch Toonzetters Award. In 2015 his work Scala II was awarded the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize. His works have been issued on various labels such as Unsounds, Er godos and Klang Records. Adriaansz teaches composition at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.