Jana De Troyer (Ghent, Belgium, b. 1994) is a composer-performer of new and experimental music. She plays the saxophone, synthesizer, electronics, bass clarinet and bicycle, and uses them as playing pieces for her sound experiments. Central to her work is the combination of her roles as creator and performer: she draws on her experiences in both worlds for her own work and for her interpretation of the works of others. Another pillar of her practice is her interest in exploring non-musical concepts from an artistic perspective. For example, De Troyer has composed music about knitting, cleaning, traffic jams, monkeys, trees, keys, money and kissing.

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De Troyer performs music by others and herself, and composes for herself and for others. Her compositional work encompasses instrumental and electronic music as well as interactive installations, net art and audiovisual works. On stage, she performs both written and improvised repertoire, with a focus on the 21st century. She is the saxophonist of the improvising group Bunte Luft Trio and also performs regularly with her computer, synthesizer, bicycle and effects. Her open-minded approach and wide range of interests have led to collaborations with creative artists from all disciplines — such as dance, visual arts, literature and web art — as well as with musicians from diverse musical backgrounds.

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In recent years, her music has been performed by local and international artists and ensembles, including ensemble mosaik (string quartet), Lux Nova Duo, HOAX Quartet, non-piano ensemble, Vertixe Sonora, Ensemble Reflexion K, Fidan Aghayeva-Edler and Elena Khurgina. In January 2024, a radio profile on her wide-ranging output was broadcast on Deutschlandfunk. She served as musical director and composer for the installation opera IT'S A MATCH (directed by Kerstin Steeb), which premiered in 2025 at Kampnagel. In 2026, she produced her own bicycle-chamber opera, Rückenwind, performed at several venues in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. ´

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De Troyer studied contemporary classical saxophone (MHL Lübeck, HfMT Munich, KASK Ghent) and composition and performance with a focus on electronic music (CoPeCo – HfMT Hamburg, EMTA Tallinn, CNSMD Lyon, KMH Stockholm). Since completing her studies, she has increasingly specialised in the hissing, scratching, crackling and rustling of analogue and digital sounds. She was an artist-in-residence at CYCLE-UP (2024, Tartu), Elektronmusikstudion (2023, Stockholm), Künstlerhaus Lauenburg (2022), subnetAIR (2022, Salzburg) and Künstlerstadt Kalbe (2017). De Troyer is an alumna of the stART.up programme run by the Claussen-Simon Foundation in Hamburg, and winner of the 2025 Ad-Libitum Composition Competition, the 2019 Lions Club Liubice Award and the 'Most Creative Approach to Critical Cycling Studies' prize at the 2026 CCS Conference for her musical work with bicycles.

 

Alongside her work as a musician, De Troyer is keen to pass on her knowledge and to play an active role in the cultural sector. She teaches electronic music at the Lübeck University of Music (Performing with Ableton Live) and at SRH University Berlin (Computer Music). In addition, she regularly teaches free Ableton workshops at the DLC Lübeck and gives artist talks. She is also a member of the board of the Hamburg Association for Contemporary Music (vamh), with which she co-organises, amongst other things, the blurred edges Festival. She is based in Hamburg, Germany.