KLAAS DE VRIES

Klaas de Vries

Klaas de Vries’ fascination with literature runs like a guiding thread through his oeuvre. Texts by Fernando Pessoa, Gabriel García Márquez, Virginia Woolf and recently David Mitchell have found their way into his music. This lively and broad interest remains a fruitful source of inspiration. Music springs from it that ...
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Biography Klaas de Vries

Klaas de Vries’ fascination with literature runs like a guiding thread through his oeuvre. Texts by Fernando Pessoa, Gabriel García Márquez, Virginia Woolf and recently David Mitchell have found their way into his music. This lively and broad interest remains a fruitful source of inspiration. Music springs from it that can be fierce and sharp, but also light and humorous. Above all, De Vries’ music is agile and expressive. He looks for unorthodox means of conveying his ideas, such as retuned pianos and a violinist with command over an extensive range of techniques. His interests have led to such large-scale operas as 'A King, Riding' (1995) and 'Wake' (2010), as well as the founding of the music theatre company De Helling, of which his wife, the mezzo-soprano Gerrie de Vries, is artistic director.

1965 - 1972

Klaas de Vries (born July 15, 1944, in Terneuzen) studies the piano and music theory at the Rotterdam Conservatory and then composition with Otto Ketting at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

Otto Ketting

1972 - 1981

De Vries begins teaching music theory at the Twente Conservatory. In 1974, he is awarded the Prize for Composition at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, after which he studies for a year in Germany with the Croatian composer Milko Kelemen. In 1979, he is appointed to teach music analysis, instrumentation and composition at the Rotterdam Conservatory.

1982 - 1985

Together with fellow teacher Peter-Jan Wagemans, De Vries establishes the Unanswered Question foundation to perform new works from the composition departments in Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam and Utrecht. He receives the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize for 'Discantus' (1983). He is a jury member at the 1985 ISCM festival in Amsterdam.

Peter-Jan Wagemans

1990 - 1991

Klaas de Vries is a guest teacher at the Groningen Conservatory and later at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and Ars Musica in Belgium.

1996 - 1998

The scenic oratorio 'A King, Riding' (1995) is premiered at the 1996 Holland Festival. For this work and 'Interludium' (1998), Klaas de Vries is awarded the 1998 Matthijs Vermeulen Prize.

2005 - 2009

With his wife, the mezzo-soprano Gerrie de Vries, he founds the music theatre company De Helling. In 2009, Klaas de Vries resigns from the Rotterdam Conservatory (Codarts).

2010

The opera 'Wake', to a libretto by David Mitchell, has electronic music in the third act by Rene Uijlenhoet. It is commissioned by the city of Enschede in memory of the victims of the 2000 firework disaster. The premier is on May 13.

2012

For the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Klaas de Vries writes 'Providence'. The composition is inspired by the Alain Resnais film with the same name and performed on January 26 in Amsterdam.

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