[Image: Kees Wieringa at the piano. Photo Ranjani Nirosha]
Canto Ostinato is a ground-breaking minimalist piece by Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt. Written in 1976 and first performed in 1979, the work has acquired cult status. This two-hour version for two pianos marks the composer’s 100th birthday year, and will be played by the formidable Dutch new-music specialist Kees Wieringa and the Trip’s resident pianist Joan Forsyth. The theme runs continuously through the piece, with overlapping layers and subtle alterations as it hypnotically unfolds.
Kees Wieringa is a Dutch pianist, composer, writer and cultural entrepreneur.
He came to prominence for his performances of the Dutch composers Jakob van Domselaer, Daniel Ruyneman and Simeon ten Holt. Kees Wieringa graduated from the Amsterdam Conservatory in Amsterdam in 1986. He has built an international career over the years with his piano recitals and compositions.
In 2010, Kees Wieringa premiered the opera Drebbel. The main character of the piece is the Alkmaar-educated inventor Cornelis Drebbel (1572–1633) (performed by rock singer Thé Lau), who was interested in themes of alchemy and spiritualism. "Wieringa was inspired by the early Baroque music with its polyphonic while emotional musical lines. Composers such as Monteverdi and Handel sound along while today intervals, chords and rhythms can be heard, reminding the minimal music of Philip Glass."
Kees Wieringa was museum director of the Kranenburgh Museum in Bergen, and since 2016 has been the director of the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum in Qatar. Wieringa has also organised and curated an exhibition 'The Majlis - Cultures in Dialogue' together with UNESCO. It was featured all over the world. About his time in Qatar he published a bestseller ‘Inshallah’. At the moment he established his own cultural center in the neighborhood of Paris, named YXIE - Manoir des Arts.
This event is free to attend on the steps of St Mark's Church in the Bowery.
