Alex Poelman · Composer

Music That
Tells Stories

Orchestra · Film

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Selected Works

Orchestra

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Moments in History

1944

2021 · Brass ensemble / Wind orchestra / Fanfare band · 13:00

Operation Market Garden and its failure at Arnhem, with authentic wartime broadcasts. Ends with the famine winter of 1944.

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Symphony

Symphony 2: The Odyssey

2012 · Wind orchestra & choir (SATB) · 45:00

A three-movement symphony on Homer’s Odyssey — Odysseus’ release from captivity, the Cyclops and the Sirens, and his triumphant return to Ithaka.

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Myths & Legends

Draco

2008 · Wind orchestra · 5:21

A Chinese myth: the dragon Draco devours the sun in eclipse, driven off by drums — worship, attack, and triumph.

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Nature & Culture

Aquila Chrysaetos

2005 · Wind orchestra / Fanfare band · 4:20

A golden eagle’s day — dawn over the mountain, riding the wind, and the hunt.

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On Screen

Film

Award-winning orchestral scores written to picture — with strong themes, emotional depth, and melodies that stay with you.

“I could listen to your music for hours, it’s THAT well written, and that compelling.”
Still from the award-winning film score Shift
“beautifully orchestrated”
Still from the film score Grizzly Business
“Strong thematical writing”
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Community

Performed around the world

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Coming up

Recent performances

▶Premiere
Pleiades Studenten Harmonie Orkest Twente · Ronny Buurink Certamen Internacional de Bandas de Música de Valencia · Spain · 17 July 2026
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Pinocchio Musikverein Geiersberg · Stefan Unterberger Gasthaus Mayr,Geiersberg · Austria · 27 March 2026
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Pinocchio Musikgesellschaft Wasen · Luca Belz Turnhalle Wasen · Switzerland · 23 January 2026
Alex Poelman© iSi fotografie

About

Alex Poelman

Alex grew up in Oosterbeek, a small town near Arnhem in the Netherlands, where regular trips to the theatre and the occasional grand musical grew into a lasting love of music. No wonder his favourite composers are storytellers: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Alan Menken, John Williams, James Horner, Hans Zimmer and Howard Shore. That same love of narrative — with a lifelong pull toward nature and mythology — inspires everything he writes, always with one goal: music that moves people, tells a story, and lets an audience live it.

  1. 1981

    Born in Arnhem on 18 July.

  2. 1992

    Takes up the French horn with Koninklijke Harmonie Oosterbeek, taught by Christiaan Beumer.

  3. 2001

    While studying computer science in Enschede — and playing principal horn at Wilhelmina Glanerbrug — writes his first wind-band work, Volcano.

  4. 2004

    Debut symphony The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is recorded by the Johan Willem Friso Kapel under Norbert Nozy; its movements become compulsory Dutch contest works for five years.

  5. 2006

    Jeanne d’Arc, a portrait of the French heroine for wind orchestra and solo horn — Alex’s own instrument.

  6. 2008

    Gé Reinders wins an Edison Award for his album Blaos mich ’t landj door, featuring Eine gek in Alex’s arrangement.

  7. 2015

    Premieres his second symphony, The Odyssey, a 45-minute work for choir and wind band, with the National Opera & Concert Choir of the Netherlands; recorded on DVD.

  8. 2020

    Commissioned by the Regimentsfanfare Garde Grenadiers en Jagers for two commemorations of twentieth-century Dutch history — 1944, on Operation Market Garden, and 1953, on the North Sea Flood.

  9. 2022

    Jekyll and Hyde, for wind orchestra and two duelling solo trumpets; performed at a contest in the concert division with a top score of 97/100.

  10. 2024

    Wins the Indie Film Music Contest with his score for Shift, a short film by Chen-Sing Yap — his film writing stepping into the spotlight.

  11. 2025

    Takes second place at the contest a year on, scoring Grizzly Business, an animated short by Kyle Nelson.

Commissions & Scoring

Let’s make something.

Film scoring, commissions for wind orchestras, brass ensembles and others, performance enquiries, or simply a question — whatever it is, I’d love to hear from you.