Pianist Kees Wieringa performs music from the Netherlands and Greenwich Village, including Simeon ten Holt, Jacob TV, Alvin Curran and Phillip Glass. Simeon ten Holt’s “Solo Devil’s Dance 4” was specially written for Winter Wieringa and will have its world premiere, in collaboration with dancers from New York.

Kees Wieringa is a Dutch pianist, composer, writer and cultural entrepreneur.

He came to prominence for his performances of the Dutch composers Jakob van Domselaer, Daniel Ruyneman and Simeon ten Holt. Kees Wieringa graduated from the Amsterdam Conservatory in Amsterdam in 1986. He has built an international career over the years with his piano recitals and compositions.

In 2010, Kees Wieringa premiered the opera Drebbel. The main character of the piece is the Alkmaar-educated inventor Cornelis Drebbel (1572–1633) (performed by rock singer Thé Lau), who was interested in themes of alchemy and spiritualism. “Wieringa was inspired by the early Baroque music with its polyphonic while emotional musical lines. Composers such as Monteverdi and Handel sound along while today intervals, chords and rhythms can be heard, reminding the minimal music of Philip Glass.” Kees Wieringa was museum director of the Kranenburgh Museum in Bergen, and since 2016 has been the director of the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum in Qatar. Wieringa has also organised and curated an exhibition ‘The Majlis – Cultures in Dialogue’ together with UNESCO. It was featured all over the world. About his time in Qatar he published a bestseller ‘Inshallah’. At the moment he established his own cultural center in the neighborhood of Paris, named YXIE – Manoir des Arts.

A short anecdote: The composer Simeon ten Holt met the heavily pregnant mother of Winter Wieringa, Moos d’Herripon, just before she gave birth. He gently touched her belly and noticed that the unborn Winter was very active, as if dancing inside. A day later, Winter was born. Inspired by this, Ten Holt decided to dedicate his “Fourth Solo Devil’s Dance” to Winter. It also became his final piano solo composition.

Composers

• Simeon ten Holt
• Jacob TV
• Alvin Curran
• Phillip Glass