Wilma Pistorius (1991, South Africa) is a South-African-born composer and cellist based in Amsterdam. Her practice moves between composition and performance, with a strong focus on sound, instrumentality and collaboration with musicians.
She studied composition with Wim Henderickx and Jorrit Tamminga at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and cello with Jeroen den Herder at Codarts Rotterdam.S ince 2024, she teaches composing for strings at ArtEZ Conservatory in Arnhem, where she has also been teaching composition as a main subject since 2025. Alongside this, she is active as a performer and maintains a cello teaching practice, and occasionally coaches conservatory students in contemporary music performance.
Pistorius’ work often originates in conceptual questions, sensory experiences and vivid mental images. She translates these into music by means of colour, texture and musical gesture, drawing on the expressive possibilities of instruments and the distinctive qualities of performers for whom she writes. Her experience as a cellist strongly informs her compositional practice: she is fascinated by the physicality of instruments, the individuality of performers, and the creative possibilities that emerge through collaboration. Her musical worlds balance precision with imagination, seriousness with playfulness, and are often rooted in the transformation of inner landscapes and reactions into sound.
Questions around identity, embodiment and gender are recurring artistic interests in her work, explored through sound, performance and theatrical elements. Rather than treating these as separate themes, she approaches them as part of a broader artistic investigation into perception, expression and human experience.
Pistorius is composer in residence at Festival Dag in de Branding for the seasons 2025–2027. She is currently developing an interdisciplinary music theatre work for six musicians, three performers and electronics, exploring the relationship between musical, theatrical and sensory experience.
Her works have been performed at festivals and venues including Gaudeamus, November Music, CelloBiennale Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam and Concertgebouw Amsterdam, as well as internationally in Germany, France, all the Scandinavian countries, the US, Australia, and New Zealand. In 2022 she received first prize in the CoMA composition competition for amateur ensembles.
photo by Claudia Hansen