Koos van de Griend

From Wind Repertory Project
Koos van de Griend

Biography

Koos van de Griend (11 December 1905, Kampen, Neth. - 12 January 1950, Amsterdam, Neth.) was a Dutch pianist, conductor, music critic, and composer.

He attended the local gymnasium and studied mathematics at the University of Amsterdam. At the same time he studied violin with Ferdinand Helmann and piano/music theory with Evert Cornelis, who saw him more as a future conductor. His first work came during that study, a Lustrummar for the student orchestra. After graduating, he left for Germany to study music in Cologne (Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Keulen ) and Berlin (with Julius Pruwer, among others conductor with the Berliner Philharmoniker ). He graduated in 1932 as conductor of the orchestra of the then still academy in the concert hall there. A year later he conducted the Residentieorkest during an afternoon concert in the Kurhaus. He returned to the Netherlands because of the rise of the National Socialists. He left for the United States for a short time, but had to return to fulfill his national service.

He composed, among other things, the film music for De Maasbruggen by Paul Schuitema (1937). In the same year he led the Concertgebouw, conducting his own Violin Concerto with soloist Andries Roodenburg. During the Second World War he headed the Municipal Music School Eindhoven, while he was also in hiding for some time. After the Second World War he worked as a composer for the Listening Games department of the Dutch radio. He specialized in film scores and music for radio plays. His signature tune for the AVRO radio play series Paul Vlaanderen is well known. Van de Griend also wrote music for amateur orchestra and concert band. He had less public success with his other, more ambitious compositions. He composed, among other things, two symphonies (the second unfinished), chamber music and two declamatoria, "although he was well aware that no one was waiting for them". Nevertheless, he received prestigious prizes for various works and was regularly commissioned to compose. He was also music critic for Algemeen Handelsblad.


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