Biography
Klaas de Vries was born on 15 July 1944 in Terneuzen, in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands. From 1965 to 1972 he studied piano, theory and composition on the conservatory of Rotterdam. He continued studying composition from 1972 at the conservatory of The Hague with the Dutch composer Otto Ketting, winning the compositionprize there in 1974. After winning this prize de Vries studied with the Croatian composer Milko Kelemen in Stuttgart, Germany. De Vries won the Matthijs Vermeulen Award twice: in 1984 for his work discantus (1982) and in 1998 for his opera A King, Riding and the Interludium for string orchestra (1996).
From 1972 to 1981 de Vries started to teach theory at the former conservatory of Twente, and he was appointed as a lecturer in theory, instrumentation, and composition at the conservatory of Rotterdam in 1979. Among his many students at this school, today also known as the Rotterdam School, are Thorkell Atlason, Antonio Pinho Vargas, António Chagas Rosa, Oscar van Dillen, Andreas Kunstein, Sergio Luque, César de Oliveira, Juan Felipe Waller, Philemon Mukarno, Dimitris Andrikopoulos, Astrid Kruisselbrink, Florian Magnus Maier, Felipe Perez Santiago, Joey Roukens, Edward Top, Jian-Hua Zhuang, Evrim Demirel and Rob Zuidam. De Vries gave master classes in Brussels, Paris, Manchester, Porto, Moscow and San Francisco.
In the 1970s de Vries got involved in the organization of the STAMP-concerts, in cooperation with Theo Loevendie. Since the 1980s de Vries got involved in the organization of the STAMP-concerts, in cooperation with Theo Loevendie. Since the 1980s de Vries has also been active, together with the composer Peter-Jan Wagemans, in the organization of the Unanswered Question foundation. This foundation concentrated on performing the works of the composition departments of the conservatories of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht.
The compositions of de Vries are being performed, among others, by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the ASKO Ensemble.
Read more about this topic: Klaas De Vries (composer)
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