401Concerts 1 
401Concerts 2
401Concerts 3
DutchDiva of the Month
Barbara Schilstra
Dutch lyric soprano Barbara Schilstra is Diva of the Month December 2016/January 2017 in the wake of her lead part in 401Concerts 4, in the Concert Hall of the library at Spui, The Hague, 18 december. She will sing there an array of arias and duets from Dutch operas by Cornelis Dopper, Daniël de Lange, Gerard von Brucken Fock, Emile von Brucken-Fock, Willem Landré, Jan van Gilse, Jan Brandts Buys en Richard Hageman. Schilstra's voice is marked by a silvery timbre and genuine personality. Till date the highlight of her career was a tour as Saffi in Gypsy Baron that took her from Vienna throughout Germany. The next highlight will be the December 18 concert! Who is curious after her voice is welcome to attend this coproduction with the Netherlands Music Institute. Entrance is Free!
DutchDivo of the Month
In Memoriam Wolter Willemsen
Our 401DutchOperas house pianist, the brilliant Wolter Willemsen, has died completely unexpectedly in his house on June 18. On behalf of our team, in particular also our vocal ensemble consisting of Barbara Schilstra, Hendrik Vonk, Lilian van de Zande and since recently also Hans de Vries, we wish his friends and family strength. Wolter was exceptionally gifted, he could take you to realms of sound in Dutch music that you had never believed possible. We had planned a studio recording of all the music we had been working on for the past two years: operas by Von Brucken Fock, Jan van Gilse, Jan Brandts Buys and some others. That we have to cancel this recording is a true blow to those wodnerful Dutch composers. Dear Wolter, wherever you are on the journey to the big unknown, we do not wish you a quiet journey at all, we wish you a lot of music and a Bösendörfer!
Max van Egmond
Max van Egmond, baritone
The admired Dutch bass-baritone Max (Rudolf) van Egmond was born on February 1, 1936 in Semarang, Java, Indonesia (the former Dutch East Indies). He completed his schooling and musical education in Holland after the war. He studied in Amsterdam with pedagogue Tine van Willigen-de Lorme during a period of more as 25 year. He became a member of the Nederlandse Bach Vereniging (Dutch Bach Society) at the age of eighteen. In 1959 (three years after his friend and compatriot, Elly Ameling) he became one of the prizewinners at the 's-Hertogenbosch Vocalisten Concours (Vocal Competition). He took prizes also in Brussels (1959) and Munich (1964) competitions.
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Those prizes marked the beginning of his full-time distinguished career as a singer of oratorio, lieder and baroque opera. Max van Egmond achieved his greatest fame as an interpreter of J. S. Bach's cantatas, masses and passions and from 1965 participated in complete recordings and performances of these masterpieces with conductors Gustav Leonhardt, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Frans Brüggen. (Teldec, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Seon). One of Holland's most beloved artists, he has received numerous awards and honours including a special decoration from Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands for his decades of service to Dutch musical life. His forty-year career has taken him throughout Europe, Canada, the USA, Israel and Asia.
For many years a professor at Amsterdam's Sweelinck Conservatory, Max van Egmond continues to give master classes throughout the world, and returns every year to Mateus, Portugal, and, in this country, to the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin, Ohio. His recent recordings with the Belgian-based Ricercar Consort have explored the extensive seventeenth-century German cantata repertory in a highly successful ongoing series of recordings (Deutsche Barock Kantaten - Ricercar). In recent years, Max van Egmond has concentrated on performing lieder and French art songs, and has produced highly acclaimed recordings (with the Belgian pianist, Jos van Immerseel) of Schubert's 'Winterreise' and chansons of Gabriel Fauré (Channel Classics). His concerts, recordings and many prominent students all provide eloquent testimony not only to his expertise in all areas of the vocal repertoire, but also to his great kindness and humanity in the service of music.
Joseph Haydn, 'Das Leben ist ein Traum', text Gleim
Source: Kutsch/Riemens Lexicon; Bach Cantatas website
Homepage of Max van Egmond, bariton in respose
