Saturday 31 December, outgoing director of the Royal Conservatoire Henk van der Meulen will present 'Een goedemorgen met...' on Dutch National Radio NPO 4. From 10.00 - 12.00 van der Meulen will exclusively play music by and from students who studied or are still studying during his time at The Hague Conservatoire. Many recordings were made by students from the Art of Sound department, studying to become sound director.
The programme can be followed live on NPO Radio 4 and listened back via this link.
Retirement Henk van der Meulen
On 1 February 2023, Henk van der Meulen (1955) will retire and hand over the leadership of the conservatoire to Lies Colman.
In the 1970s and 1980s, van der Meulen was a composer in numerous productions, created in the breeding grounds of the performing arts. Choreographers (a.o. Bianca van Dillen), poets (a.o. Judith Herzberg), dramatists (a.o. Ritsaert ten Cate) and journalists (a.o. Ischa Meijer) gladly called on him to compose music to accompany their work. He has also composed for the Asko❘Schönberg Ensemble, the Nederlands Kamerkoor and Orkest de Volharding, among others.
Van der Meulen continues his path as head of the Music and Dance Department of Dutch Public Broadcasting. Music and dance, and especially in their latest manifestations, were given a window like it had not existed at the public broadcaster before and, unfortunately, after this. Because of his broad view of and passion for the performing arts, Henk becomes a go to advisor in an extensive network of boards and advisory bodies. He eagerly fulfils this role, if possible as chairman.
In 2008, he started as director of the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, succeeding his predecessors Jan van Vlijmen and Frans de Ruiter. One of the most startling productions in the history of the Conservatoire, began with Henk's own ill-fated idea to perform all seven operas from Karlheinz Stockhausen's cycle Licht in one coherence. The 2019 production Aus Licht, a co-production of De Nationale Opera, the Holland Festival and the Royal Conservatoire received worldwide attention. As director of a conservatoire, he recognised the potential of connecting a performing arts educational institute with the most challenging aspects of performance practice.
It typifies the role that Henk van der Meulen fulfilled in the last third of his career that the Royal Conservatoire was able to develop into a school in which the artist's hunger is aroused as a matter of course and a richly varied offer to satisfy it must be available. Facilitating that by attracting talented staff to teach music and dance, embedding the school in an international network of artists and, in passing, bringing about the establishment of Amare as house for performing arts, are his not to be underestimated merits.
It has been a blessing for the Royal Conservatoire including the dance department, for the University of the Arts in The Hague including the Royal Academy of Arts and for music education internationally that Henk van der Meulen has used his artistry and leadership all these years to serve artist education.
Photo: Alex Schröder