Biography Henk de Vlieger (Schiedam, 1953) studied at the Rotterdam Conservatory, succesively percussion with Willem Heesen and composition with Theo Loevendie and Klaas de Vries. In 1976 he was appointed as percussionist and timpanist 'in general service' with the orchestras of the Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation (NOS). Since 1984 he is a permanent member of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.
Henk de Vlieger worked with such conductors as: Ernest Bour, Jean Fournet, Riccardo Muti, Kirill Kondrashin, Kurt Sanderling, Mariss Jansons, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Herbert Blomstedt, Valeri Gergiev, Kent Nagano, Peter Eötvös, Mark Elder, Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Robertson, and of course the Dutch masters: Willem van Otterloo, Bernard Haitink, Hans Vonk, Edo de Waart and Jaap van Zweden. As a soloist he participated among other things in 'Concerto pour batterie et petit orchestre' by Darius Milhaud, 'La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus Christ' and 'Saint François d'Assise' by Olivier Messiaen, 'Manhattan Concerto' by Siegfried Matthus and 'From me flows what you call Time' by Toru Takemitsu. In addition to a modest number of compositions, Henk de Vlieger has produced dozens of arrangements of diverse kinds. He made instrumentations for theatre and film productions, arrangements for percussion ensemble (e.g. his remarkable instrumentation of Mussorgski's 'Pictures at an exhibition' for percussion orchestra), and orchestrations of works by Schumann, Brahms and Dvorak. He obtained international acknowledgement with his four symphonic compilations from operas by Richard Wagner. Henk de Vlieger is author of the 'Handbook for the orchestral percussion section'. This book, published in 2003, describes the percussion sections in about 2000 orchestral compositions. Photo: Marco Borggreve News (Last modified on September 1, 2009) March 29, 2009: First performance of a compact version of Wagners “Tristan und Isolde” by Carel Alphenaar and Henk de Vlieger. The arrangement for 2 singers, a narrator and 10 musicians was commissioned by the IJ-Salon and performed by musicians of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Enjoy this performance online at www.ij-salon.nl/ij-tunes_tristan.shtml or www.youtube.com/user/ijtunes March 27, 28, 29, 31, 2009: New performances of “Tristan”, ballet in two acts by Krzysztof Pastor in the National Opera House of Warsaw, Poland. Henk de Vlieger made the musical score, based upon Tristan & Isolde - an orchestral passion and Wagners Wesendonklieder. February 14, 2009: First performance of “Fuge Nr. 6 über den Namen BACH” by Robert Schumann, orchestrated by Henk de Vlieger. Amsterdam, Concertgebouw, Jaap van Zweden conducting the Radio Kamerfilharmonie. The arrangement was commissioned by ZaterdagMatinee. January 2008: Release of two new records with orchestral Wagner arrangements: Tristan & Isolde - an orchestral passion by Antony Hermus conducting the Philharmonisches Orchester Hagen (Acousense ACO-CD 20707) The Ring – an orchestral adventure by Neeme Järvi conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Chandos Super Audio CHSA 5060)
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