MAARTEN VAN VEEN
"Juste complicité entre un maître et son piano..énergie cependent, jusque-là subtilement maîtrisée"
Pianist and conductor Maarten van Veen comes from a musical family and started playing the piano at a young age . He studied at the conservatories of Utrecht, Prague and finalized his study in Amsterdam (Sweelinck Conservatory). During the conservatory curriculum he was early to specialize himself in the performance of contemporary music besides the classical repertoire. Van Veen studied with Alwin Bär, Kyoko Hashimoto, Ton Hartsuiker and György Sebök. He studied at the Mozart Academy with Oleg Maisenberg, Ivan Klánsky, David Golub and Leonid Hambro.
During the Competition of 20th-century Piano music in Orleans (France,1996), he received the prize for the "best candidate with a personal view of contemporary music". Together with his brother Jeroen van Veen he also won the First Prize of the Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition (U.S.A, 1995). In 1998 he worked with Robert Craft on Stravinsky 's piano repertoire, and recorded "Les Noces" with the latter in the Abbey studios, London. The New York Times stated this recording as ´the best recording ever`.
Van Veen performed all over Europe and played with different orchestras and conductors like Peter Eötvös, Howard Williams, Arie van Beek, Neal Stulberg, Christopher Hogwood, Henrik Schaefer, Lev Markiz, Lucas Vis, Jurjen Hempel, Etienne Siebens, Peter Oundjian and Robert Craft. He founded the International Piano Quartet (4 pianos) and played many concerts in the U.S.A. and Canada.
During the conservatory curriculum and in his programming as a solo pianist, he always strives to connect classical and contemporary repertoire. In the Netherlands Van Veen is member of the artistic board of the Doelenensemble (Rotterdam) that offers programs with a panoramic view of the 20th century. In the U.S.A he is the Artistic Director (since 2007) of the Murray Dranoff Foundation.