TERA DE MAREZ OYENS

Tera de Marez Oyens

Tera de Marez Oyens is the most important Dutch female composer of the 20th century. She is the composer of about 200 works, ranging from user-friendly music for amateurs to modern, highly stylistically varied pieces for a range of ensembles and resources. Equally notable is that her deep social and ...
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Biography Tera de Marez Oyens

Tera de Marez Oyens is the most important Dutch female composer of the 20th century. She is the composer of about 200 works, ranging from user-friendly music for amateurs to modern, highly stylistically varied pieces for a range of ensembles and resources. Equally notable is that her deep social and political engagement is audible in many of her works. She was married to Gerrit de Marez Oyens, then Menachem Arnoni, and finally the artist and comics author Marten Toonder.

1932

Tera de Marez Oyens is born on August 5 in Velsen as Woltera Gerharda Wansink.

1948 - 1960

Tera de Marez Oyens studies the piano with Jan Odé as well as the harpsichord, violin and conducting at the Amsterdam Conservatory. She composes 'Zuid-Afrikaanse Liederen' [South African Songs, 1951], for high female voice and piano. In 1952 she proceed to study composition and instrumentation with Hans Henkemans and electronic music with Gottfried Michael Koenig at the Institute for Sonology at Utrecht University. She teaches at the Academy for Expression in Utrecht and Utrecht University.

Gerrit de Marez Oyens Gottfried Michael Koenig Hans Henkemans

1964

De Marez Oyens receives the Visser Neerlandia Prize for 'Der Chinesische Spiegel' [The Chinese Mirror, 1963], three songs for orchestra and tenor soloist. She composes her first electronic piece, 'Etude II'.

1973

De Marez Oyens composes 14 melodies for the 'Liedboek voor de Kerken' [Songbook for Churches].

1975

On September 6, Tera de Marez Oyens becomes the first woman to conduct the Overijssel Philharmonic Orchestra (now The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra), in a performance of her own music.

1977 - 1987

Tera de Marez Oyens teaches composition and contemporary music at the Zwolle Conservatory. Her book 'Werken met Moderne Klanken' [Working with Modern Sounds] is published in 1978 by De Toorts in Haarlem.

1980 - 1987

De Marez Oyens attends the first International Congress on Women in Music and later remains active in this area, also as a representative of the Stichting Vrouw en Muziek [Woman and Music Foundation], which is founded in 1985. “I’m not a priori someone for separate women’s groups.” she says. “At a festival, I heard a lecture by a woman who warned us that we mustn’t follow in the footsteps of male composers, but rather follow our own, ‘feminine’ path. What does she mean by that? Statements like that anger me. I simply want to write good music.”

1988 - 1989

De Marez Oyens composes 'Symmetrical Memories', for cello and orchestra, for the International Cello Competition in Scheveningen. She is composer-in-residence at Georgia State University in Atlanta. With the 'Dublin Quartet', she wins first prize at a composition competition in Dublin.

1995

De Marez Oyens writes the orchestral piece 'Unison' for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.

1996

Tera de Marez Oyens marries Marten Toonder on May 23. She dies on August 29 in Hilversum at age 64. After her death, the Tera de Marez Oyens Fund is established. The foundation awards a biennial prize.

2009

The Tera de Marez Oyens Fund decides to award commissions for new works by composers who have not been composing for very long. With the prize, the board seeks to link up with the Henriëtte Bosmans Prize of GENECO. During the Netherlands Music Days, the prize is awarded to the Colombian Natalia Domínguez Rangel.

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