Xavier van de Poll was born in 1995 in Tilburg, the Netherlands, and started his music career at the age of four when he was introduced to the violin. Two years later he started playing the instrument himself. He discovered his love for orchestral music and opera at the age of thirteen upon joining the JeugdOrkest Nederland (Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands) where he played the most well-known symphonies, symphonic poems, solo concerti and commissioned modern classical compositions for fourteen consecutive concert seasons. From 2005 – 2011 he was a student at the Young Musicians Academy: the youth department of the Fontys Conservatory in Tilburg. His violin teachers were Jenny Spanoghe and Thijs Kramer. Afterwards he took private lessons with Natalia Gabunia and Wouter Vossen.

He started composing at the age of nineteen and received his first education in composition at the Conservatory of Amsterdam for two years where he was taught by Joël Bons. Simultaneously he followed the bachelor’s programme in Musicology at the University of Amsterdam, where he graduated in 2018 with his thesis “What’s the matter with atonality?: on the perception of atonal music from a neuropsychological viewpoint”. Xavier recently graduated with a 9,5 from the Fontys Academy of Music & Performing Arts (AMPA) in Classical Music Composition, obtaining his second bachelor’s degree. His composition teachers at AMPA were Kees van den Bergh and Anthony Fiumara.

His music has been performed in the Netherlands, Poland and China and has been awarded various prizes, including the winning composition of the Fourth International Composition Competition “Sinfonietta per Sinfonietta” held under the honorary patronage of prof. Krzysztof Penderecki for his double concerto The Tale of Prince Ivanovich. In the following years more awards followed, including being a finalist at the 2019 Lin Yaoji Composition Competition for Solo Violin in Chinese Style, hosted by the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, attending as the sole non-Chinese composer with his composition Spring Lantern Festival. Following his graduation in his home country, he is now continuing his music studies at the Royal College of Music in London under the tutelage of prof. Kenneth Hesketh. Xavier is a Kit and John Gander Award Holder and is additionally receiving financial support from the Prins Bernhard Cultural Foundation, VSBfoundation, Hendrik Muller Fund and the Vrijvrouwe van Renswoude Foundation. He is currently working on a commission from the South Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, which will premiere in the last week of November under the baton of Hans Graf.