Martijn van den Hoek

Winner of the 1986 Franz Liszt Competition in Utrecht, Holland, and the 1987 Netherlands Music Prize, Martijn van den Hoek was catapulted to international celebrity in his early twenties, appearing at the most prestigious recital halls across the globe and with the world's leading conductors and orchestras. In the decades since he has lived up to the promise offered by those early triumphs, producing numerous acclaimed recordings and maintaining a heavy schedule of high-profile concerts across Europe, Asia, and the U.S. His repertory is broad, taking in works by <a href="spotify:artist:4NJhFmfw43RLBLjQvxDuRS">Mozart</a>, Beethoven, <a href="spotify:artist:2p0UyoPfYfI76PCStuXfOP">Schubert</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2UqjDAXnDxejEyE0CzfUrZ">Schumann</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7y97mc3bZRFXzT2szRM4L4">Chopin</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:1385hLNbrnbCJGokfH2ac2">Liszt</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:1C3sffOOvQNUwg4YIsvKqy">Franck</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:1Uff91EOsvd99rtAupatMP">Debussy</a>, and other familiar names. But he has also performed music by lesser known figures, like conductor/composer <a href="spotify:artist:56m7L0fmmJXctpLrG0GEFc">Igor Markevitch</a>, as well as contemporary Dutch composers. He regularly performs in chamber music concerts, too, often with his wife, violinist Tamiko Kaneko. Van den Hoek is also a teacher and author, having written two books, one relating to ancient Greek philosophy and the other entitled Eye and Ear (2005), an examination of communication in music. Van den Hoek's recordings are available on several labels, including <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Naxos%22">Naxos</a> and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Brilliant+Classics%22">Brilliant Classics</a>.

Martijn van den Hoek was born in Rotterdam, Holland, on September 7, 1954. He studied music at the Rotterdam Conservatory, from where he graduated in 1975 at 18. He had further studies in Moscow and Budapest, and with Juilliard-based Siloti student Josef Raieff.

Following his 1986 victory at the Liszt Competition and 1987 Netherlands Music Prize award, van den Hoek launched his international career, giving many concerts in Europe and Asia, especially Japan, and eventually making numerous appearances on television for BBC London and Edinburgh, RAI Roma, and on Dutch, Hungarian, and Japanese television.

Despite his heavy concert schedule, van den Hoek also got involved in teaching: he served on the faculty of the Vienna University for Music from 1988-1995, and from 1998 began teaching at the Vienna Conservatory, while maintaining a professorship at the University of Utrecht, a post he still holds.

Meanwhile, van den Hoek would found the Musik Zentral Festival in Bad Aussee, Austria, in 1996. He became artistic director of the Music@Residence in Richard Strauss Villa in 2005, where music by <a href="spotify:artist:6pAwHPeExeUbMd5w7Iny6D">Strauss</a> and his contemporaries is performed in a regular series of concerts. Among van den Hoek's later recordings is the 2008 CD of the rarely heard Partita by <a href="spotify:artist:56m7L0fmmJXctpLrG0GEFc">Igor Markevitch</a>, a difficult concerto-like work for piano and orchestra.