Herman Witkam was born in Leiden, one of Holland's oldest historic cities. At early age, he was introduced to music by his father, who is a music teacher. He learned to play the recorder, and after mastering the instrument, he moved on to composing his first etudes. By the age of 12, Herman was playing drums and alto saxophone, to discover the electric guitar at 14. From that point on, he started to play in high school bands, first as a guitar player, but later as a drummer, bass player and vocalist. With some help, he recorded his first demo album, influenced by progressive rock and metal groups such as Blind Guardian and Iced Earth.

After high school, Herman started his studies of sound recording and production at the School of Audio Engineering (SAE) in Rotterdam. Here, Herman was confronted with a large number of musical styles that were new to him, like jazz, post-rock and electronic music. In the meanwhile, Herman started composing at home using a sampler, creating his first compositions for full orchestra.

Herman graduated from SAE in 2004 and went to study film composition at the Utrecht School of the Arts (Faculty of Art, Media and Design). In 2008, Herman graduated with a Master of the Arts degree in Music Composition in Contexts.

The DVXUser years

Still in college, Herman started to work on short film projects, and soon found a number of filmmakers to collaborate with through the DVXUser Film Festivals. These online festivals are held a few times per year, centering around a theme, which is then used to develop a 6 minute short film by the filmmakers, who are spread across the globe.

Herman has participated in a number of these festivals, winning 'Best Music Score' for Jack Daniel Stanley's REKINDLED, runner up 'Best Music Score' for Mark Harris' BLOODY MARY at the same festival, and more recently the sound design award for REMEMBER WHEN and THE MUSIC BOX. A number of the other films Herman has composed for have won 'Best Film' and 'Audience Favorite' awards at the DVXUser festivals.

"Working on many short films was a great way to learn about and understand how  film music works", Herman recalls. "It allowed me to work on a large variety of genres, while at the same time building a portfolio. Also, I was able to start working on my sound design chops. Sound design is something I started to do in college, and it has become a large secondary occupation for me ever since."  

Multi-Instrumentalist

During his studies at the Utrecht School of the Arts, Herman discovered that he could learn new musical instruments without taking lessons, by listening and watching the performers of these instruments. His first new love was the Armenian Duduk, a double reed instrument with a very voice-like mournful quality to it. Other instruments Herman learned to play were: The Japanese Shakuhachi bamboo flute, Chinese Hulusi and Bawu, Nigerian Udu, Native American Flute and the North Indian Bansuri flute.

In 2005, Herman got a small job on his first feature film, THE KING MAKER. He was invited by British composer Ian Livingstone to perform a few improvised recordings of effects and melodies played on the Chinese Xiao flute. Herman would later work on console game titles by Eidos and Atari, performing ethnic instruments for the scores. In 2008, he worked wth composer Maarten Spruijt as a woodwind performer on the feature film THE SEVEN OF DARAN: THE BATTLE OF PAREO ROCK.

Today, Herman uses the ethnic instruments often in his own scores, combining them with an orchestra, or creating music inspired by traditional Asian, African and (Latin) American styles.