Just as David Bowie has his Ziggy Stardust, saxophonist Willem van Merwijk (Bemmel, 1960) regularly transforms into his alter ego, composer Guillermo Lago. Willem is what you might call a musical jack-of-all-trades.

The first time Guillermo Lago appeared was during the creation of two compositions for the concert program Tangón. Together with the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, of which Willem is a founding member, the saxophonist wanted to explore how concert tango had evolved after the death of its great innovator, Astor Piazzolla.

In composing, Willem discovered the Spaniard within himself. “Guillermo Lago turned out to fit wonderfully with the music I was creating, so I decided to continue composing under this name.” The saxophonist now has more than forty compositions to his name, including the piece Bloemen in de Stilte, specially written for the National Remembrance Day 2011.

For the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, of which Willem has been a member since 1990, he has arranged numerous pieces, including Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen and Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre.