![HenriArends1963](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/HenriArends1963.jpg)
Henri Arends (8 May 1921 – 6 August 1994) was a Dutch
conductor.
Arends was born in
Maastricht
Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...
, and belongs to the generation of conductors who paid as much attention to modern music as to that of the classic and romantic periods.
Originally a violinist, he attended the courses for conductors at the
Mozarteum of Salzburg under
Carlo Zecchi
Carlo Zecchi (8 July 190331 August 1984) was an Italian pianist, music teacher and conductor.
Zecchi was born in Rome. A pupil of F. Baiardi for piano and of L. Refice and A. Bustini for composition, he began his career as a concert pianist at o ...
and at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena under
Paul van Kempen
Paul van Kempen (16 May 1893 – 8 December 1955) was a Dutch conductor.
Personal life
Van Kempen was born in Zoeterwoude, Netherlands. He studied at the Amsterdam conservatory from 1910 to 1913, including composition and conducting with Ju ...
.
Already in that time he achieved notice for his mature interpretations and for his exceptional musical memory.
Wilhelm Furtwängler, the great German conductor, who saw him working with the Mozarteum Orchestra predicted him a brilliant career.
From 1953 until 1957, he was assistant and later second conductor of the
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, under first conductor
Eduard van Beinum, in Amsterdam and choirmaster of the Toonkunst-choir.
It was as first conductor and musical director of the North Holland Philharmonic that he attracted attention for his completely fresh approach to a vast repertoire and for his highly original efforts to attract new audiences to the concert hall. among these successful enterprises was the formation of the famous "Heart's Desires Festivals", which were aimed at young people.
As guest conductor, Arends performed at many concerts in his country and abroad.
He conducted a.o. the radio-orchestras of Hilversum, Paris, Helsinki, Nice and Geneva; the FOK-orchestra of Prag, the
Philharmonics of Brno, Ostrawa, Kraków, Lodz, Katowice, Danzig, Budapest, Innsbruck, Osnabrück, Aachen and the
Salzburg Mozarteum orchestra. He also appeared with orchestras in South-Africa (Cape Town and Johannesburg) and with orchestras in the United States (New York and Baton rouge). He died in
Lanaken.
Publications
* Jozef Robijns, Miep Zijlstra: ''Algemene muziekencyclopedie'', Haarlem: De Haan, (1979)-1984,
* John L. Holmes: ''Conductors on record'', London: Victor Gollancz, 1982.
1921 births
1994 deaths
Dutch conductors (music)
Male conductors (music)
Musicians from Maastricht
Mozarteum University Salzburg alumni
20th-century conductors (music)
20th-century Dutch male musicians
{{Netherlands-conductor-stub