Donemus Webshop — Arntzen, Kees

Education and Objectives
After his studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory, Kees Arntzen studied theory and composition for three years in the 1980s at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna: music theory with Paul Kont, instrumentation with Johannes Dürr, and composition with Friedrich Cerha. He also took several lessons with Boguslaw Schäffer in Salzburg. During that time, his work was performed at the contemporary music gathering in Alpenbad Sankt-Leonhard in Carinthia and at the ‘Aspekte’ Festival in Salzburg. In the late 1990s, after a longer period of silence, Kees Arntzen resumed composing, this time with Daan Manneke as his coach.
In addition to his work as a composer, guitarist, and music writer, Kees Arntzen is also deeply involved in visual arts, especially as a printmaker and watercolorist. In projects such as Gia Sena – a series of graphic scores for various solo instruments – and Leuke Spreuken – illustrated canons for vocal ensemble – he consistently seeks to create a relationship between image and sound. He illustrated his guitar edition of the much-loved Arie Italiane Antiche with a series of twenty-four cartoon-like etchings and lithographs. In November 2025, Donemus, in collaboration with the Leo Smit Foundation, published his book The Amsterdam School in Lithograph and Sound: lithographs of significant Amsterdam buildings from the pre-war years are paired with compositions delivered in the same year – all by Dutch and often Jewish composers such as Leo Smit, who were successful during the Interwar period but later banned and relentlessly persecuted during the war.
Compositions and Performances
Works with Guitar
The large-scale solo guitar composition Widmung was performed and recorded by Wim Hoogewerf. The CD of the same name (with harpsichordist Joop van Goozen) was recently re-released by the Donemus Composer’s Voice label (DCV559) and is now also available for streaming. The same guitarist also premiered the guitar concerto Haz clic (in memoriam Django Reinhardt) and the double concerto with flute …dejar abajo… (a homage to Alberto Ginastera). Hoogewerf also recorded Disfraz for pan flute and guitar with Mariana Preda, and the award-winning Norwegian Mood – a work with a microtonal structure – on CD for the French label l’Horizon Violet. This CD, titled …dejar debajo…, is also available for streaming.
Kees Arntzen himself performs as a guitarist on the CD Chuva de Época with tenor Marcel Beekman and flautist Eleonore Pameijer (DCV 446), and as accompanist to various singers on the compilation CD featuring 24 Arie Italiane Antiche (DMV 027). His popular Tucholsky-Lieder with Henriette Schenk and Paul Prenen were also released on the Donemus label (DCV264).
Orchestral and Ensemble Music
Arntzen maintains close ties with the Argentine Ensemble Rosario led by Marisol Gentile. This ensemble premiered his orchestral composition Sfumatura and later also performed ensemble works such as Habibi cum figuris, Le coucou dodé, and Harmonie! …wenn solches sie vernommen… – the latter two written for the “twelve-tone year” 2023.
Choral Works and Operas
The Koor Nieuwe Muziek successfully premiered the choral work HTW 1/2, featuring ancient Egyptian love poetry. Under the direction of Romain Bischoff, the Cluster Chamber Choir performed Fuite and the commissioned work Louenge a la Court for a cappella choir. Amsterdam South district supported the creation of a summer opera for the neighborhood during the Open Atelier Days, where the chamber opera Fenomeen was performed – an allegory on the life of Herman Brood with a libretto by Renée Harp. The opera Tender is the Night, based on the novel by Scott Fitzgerald, is awaiting completion, though it had a preview performance during the COVID-19 crisis. A revival of Akolasi Rabotas and the premiere of Z-zang, both for chamber choir, are scheduled for November 2025.
Other Chamber Music
Arntzen received a commission from the Dutch Fund for the Creative Arts to write the string quartet Tal mi fec’io for the Franciscus String Quartet.
The Czech Bennewitz Quartet, together with clarinetist Harry-Imre Dijkstra, performed Kurzweil, and Ensemble Rosario played the string orchestra work Dove c’è tutto.
At the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, tenor Marcel Beekman and his ensemble Chiudate presented a version for baroque instruments of the song cycle Chuva de Época. Beekman had previously performed the Mello Songs for flute, guitar, and tenor.
The German ensemble 61strings performed Arntzen’s adaptation of Schreker’s Der Geburtstag der Infantin at Villa Seligmann in Hanover.
At the exhibition Bestiary at Villa Wertheimstein in Vienna, the Five Insect Songs for keyboard and voice premiered. These pieces are the musical counterpart to a series of earlier etchings and engravings on the theme of “little creatures” – some created in collaboration with textile artist Joanne Kobald.
A concert and retrospective exhibition of Arntzen’s musical graphics took place in autumn 2024 at the Collège Néerlandais in Paris. Baritone Fernando Linares Correa performed excerpts from the cycle Oda a la guitarra and the Five Insect Songs. Parisian musicians interpreted several of the Gia Sena graphic scores exhibited on the walls, alongside lithographs of Amsterdam School buildings.