Jeroen van Veen (born May 1969 in

Herwen en Aerdt Herwen en Aerdt is a former municipality in the Dutch province of Gelderland Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is wa ...

Gelderland Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...

) is a Dutch classical pianist and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. As well as undertaking work as a soloist, he collaborates with other pianists. For example, he has formed duos with his brother Maarten, and, later, with his wife Sandra.

Short biography

Jeroen Van Veen studied at the

Utrechts Conservatorium The Utrechts Conservatorium is a Conservatory of Music in Utrecht, Netherlands and part of the '' Utrecht School of the Arts'' (HKU). The conservatory opened in 1875 and is one of the eldest professional musical education institutes of the Netherl ...

(HKU) with Alwin Bär and

Håkon Austbø Håkon Austbø (born October 22, 1948) is a Norwegian classical pianist. He has created many recordings for the label Brilliant Classics and Naxos Records, and is also a professor at the Amsterdam conservatory. Born in Kongsberg, Austbø studied ...

. Since year 1988 he has played concerts and recitals throughout Europe and North America and recorded over 190 CDs for Mirasound, Koch,

Naxos Naxos (; el, Νάξος, ) is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum, which until modern times was one of the best abr ...

Brilliant Classics Brilliant Classics is a classical music label based in the Dutch town of Leeuwarden. It is renowned for releasing super-budget-priced editions on CD of the complete works of J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and many other composers. The label also sp ...

and his own label piano. Van Veen's compositions are mostly solo piano works and could be described as mostly

minimal music Minimal music (also called minimalism)"Minimalism in music has been defined as an aesthetic, a style, and a technique, each of which has been a suitable description of the term at certain points in the development of minimal music. However, two o ...

. His latest recordings have also focused on minimal music, including a 9 CD Minimal Piano Collection box set, somewhat dominated by the music of

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

, the complete piano music of

George Crumb George Henry Crumb Jr. (24 October 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an American composer of avant-garde contemporary classical music. Early in his life he rejected the widespread modernist usage of serialism, developing a highly personal musical ...

, and a collaboration on recording all of

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, a ...

Chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

. Among other functions, Van Veen is the director of ''Van Veen Productions'

''Piano Mania'

and the ''

Simeon ten Holt Simeon ten Holt (24 January 1923 – 25 November 2012) was a Dutch contemporary classical composer. Ten Holt was born in Bergen, North Holland, and studied with Jakob van Domselaer, eventually developing a highly personal style of minimal ...

Foundation'

He is also the artistic director of the ''Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition'

based in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, where he and his brother Marten van Veen were prize winners in 1995. In 2016 Van Veen received the NPO Radio 4 award; Van Veen was praised for his 'out of the box' programming and for finding new ways to attract a new audience for classical music.

Extended biography

:"''Dutch pianist and composer Jeroen van Veen, the leading exponent of minimalism in Holland today, Alan Swanson (Fanfare)''" Jeroen Van Veen started playing the piano at the age of 7. He studied at the Utrechts Conservatorium with Alwin Bär and Håkon Austbö. In 1993 he passed the Performing Artists' Exam. Van Veen has played with orchestras conducted by Howard Williams ( Adams),

Péter Eötvös Péter Eötvös ( hu, Eötvös Péter, ; born 2 January 1944) is a Hungarian composer, conductor and teacher. Eötvös was born in Székelyudvarhely, Transylvania, then part of Hungary, now Romania. He studied composition in Budapest and Colog ...

(

Zimmermann Zimmermann is a German occupational surname for a carpenter. The modern German terms for the occupation of carpenter are Zimmerer, Tischler, or Schreiner, but Zimmermann is still used. ''Zimmer'' in German means room or archaically a chamber wi ...

) in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, Utrecht,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, and

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

and the United States with Neal Stulberg (Mozart & Bartók) and

Robert Craft Robert Lawson Craft (October 20, 1923 – November 10, 2015) was an American conductor and writer. He is best known for his intimate professional relationship with Igor Stravinsky, on which Craft drew in producing numerous recordings and books. ...

(

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

) He has played recitals in Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Russia & the USA. Van Veen attended master classes with

Claude Helffer Claude Helffer (18 June 1922 – 27 October 2004) was a French pianist. Early life Helffer was born in Paris, and began piano lessons at the age of five and from the age of ten until the outbreak of World War II he studied with Robert Casa ...

, Hans-Peter & Volker Stenzl, and

Roberto Szidon Roberto Szidon (21 September 194121 December 2011) was a Brazilian classical pianist who had an international performing and recording career, and settled in Germany. Life and career Szidon was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1941. He gave his fi ...

. He was invited to several festivals, a.o. the Reder Piano Festival (1988), Festival der Kunsten in

Bad Gleichenberg Bad Gleichenberg is a municipality in the district of Südoststeiermark in the Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It ...

(1992), Wien Modern (1993), Holland Dance Festival (1998) Lek Art Festival (1996–2007). Van Veen recorded for major Dutch Radio- and Television companies like AVRO, NOS, IKON, NCRV, TROS/Internet, WTBC-TV & Radio (Florida, U.S.A.), and Moscow Television. In 1992, Van Veen recorded his first CD with his brother Maarten as the internationally recognized Piano duo Van Veen. In 1995 Piano duo Van Veen made their debut in the United States. They were prizewinners in the prestigious 4th International Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition in

, Florida. After this achievement, they toured the United States and Canada many times. The documentary ''Two Pianos One Passion'' (nominated for an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

in 1996) documents them as a duo. Besides performing, Jeroen is co-founder and artistic director of the International Student Piano Competition, which is held in Utrecht every two years. In 1995 Jeroen Van Veen founded ''Van Veen & Van Veen'' (Van Veen & Co.), a piano duo with Sandra Van Veen. As such, they mainly perform music for multiple pianos by the Dutch composer

. Furthermore, in 1999 Van Veen initiated a concert series ''Pianova'' in the

Concertgebouw The Royal Concertgebouw ( nl, Koninklijk Concertgebouw, ) is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" translates into English as "concert building". Its superb acoustics place it among the finest concert halls i ...

, Amsterdam. Besides his career as a solo pianist, Van Veen also participates in the following ensembles: ''Piano Ensemble'', ''The International Piano Quartet'', ''The Simeon Quartet'', ''Piano Mania'', ''DJ Piano,'' and ''Jeroen van Veen & Friends''. The various compositions by Van Veen could be described as ''Minimal Music'' with different faces, and crossovers of jazz, blues,

soundscape A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term was originally coined by Michael Southworth, and popularised by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, r ...

, Avant-garde, techno, trance, and pop music. Currently, Van Veen is director of Van Veen Productions, Chairman of the Simeon ten Holt Foundation, Culemborg Cultural Foundation, Pianomania Foundation, and artistic director of several music festivals in

Culemborg Culemborg () is a municipality and a city in the centre of the Netherlands. The city had a population of 29,386 on 1 January 2022 and is situated just south of the Lek river. Direct train lines run from the railway station towards the cities of U ...

, Utrecht and

Veldhoven Veldhoven () is a municipality and town on the Gender in the southern Netherlands, just southwest of Eindhoven. Topography Dutch topographic map of Veldhoven (town), Dec. 2013 Population centres The modern town of Veldhoven is an agglomerat ...

. He is active in the International Utrecht Student Piano Competition and the Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition. Over the last 25 years, Van Veen recorded more than 200 CDs for several labels (Mirasound, Koch, Naxos, Brilliant Classics) and his label PIANO. The piano playing in Stravinsky's ''

Les Noces ''Les Noces'' (French for The Wedding; russian: Свадебка, ''Svadebka'') is a ballet and orchestral concert work composed by Igor Stravinsky for percussion, pianists, chorus, and vocal soloists. The composer gave it the descriptive title " ...

'' surpassed that of the distinguished musicians in the composer's recording according to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. The recording of

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

's music for

piano four hands Piano four hands (french: À quatre mains, german: Zu vier Händen, Vierhändig, it, a quattro mani) is a type of piano duet involving two players playing the same piano simultaneously. A duet with the players playing separate instruments is ...

with Sandra van Veen was rated on ''Classics Today'' with 10 out of 10 for artistic quality and 10 out of 10 for sound quality and said it to be ''"...a must for Satie fans."''Satie: Complete 4–hand music/van Veen
Classics Today

Discography

Produced at Van Veen Productions Label PIANO

List of works

* ''Culemborg City Soundscape'', (2002) (on CD) * ''Weeshuis Soundscape'' (2005) (on tape) * ''Words on Kindness'', for 2 pianos and 5 voices (2006) (premiered 2006) * ''12 Minimal Preludes'', BOOK I, (1999–2003) (on CD 8551) for piano * ''12 Minimal Preludes'', BOOK II, (2004–2006) (on CD 8551) for piano * ''In de Doelen'', leadermuziek (2006) on DVD * ''Tango for Amalia, Alexia & Ariane'' (2007) (premiered 2007) for

Piano four hands Piano four hands (french: À quatre mains, german: Zu vier Händen, Vierhändig, it, a quattro mani) is a type of piano duet involving two players playing the same piano simultaneously. A duet with the players playing separate instruments is ...

* ''Incanto nr 1'' for two pianos (2011) on CD * ''Snake it easy'' for 6 pianos * ''Draughts'' for multiple pianos * "Novosibirsk Chamber Orchestra, A. Polishchuk with Jeroen van Veen (A piano quintet composition of

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czechs, Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravian traditional music, Moravia and his native Bohemia, following t ...

, arranged for piano and String Orchestra) * ''Pianomania'', piano improvisations on 3 pianos. * "Minimal Preludes, Book III & Book IV" (2007–2013) * "NLXL" 2011 *"Incanto" II, III & IV * "Slash" for Itzik Galili

Other official functions

*Van Veen Productions, (1995-) director *International Students Piano Competition, Utrecht (1994-) artistic director *Lek Art Foundation, Culemborg (1994–2007) artistic director *Simeon ten Holt Foundation, Culemborg (2004-) chair *

Cultureel, Culemborg (2005–2007) chair *Ostinato Festival, Veldhoven (2006-) artistic director *Piano Mania Foundation, Culemborg (2006-) chair *Dranoff Two Piano Foundation Miami, Artistic Director development (2002-)

External links

Website of Jeroen van VeenVan Veen Productions website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Veen, Jeroen Van 1969 births Living people People from Rijnwaarden Dutch classical pianists Classical piano duos Minimalist composers 21st-century classical pianists