8/13/2019 Henk Gu It Tart Biography October 2013
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Henk Guittart (b.1953) studied viola with Jrgen Kussmaul and
orchestral conducting withLouis Stotijn in The Hague, The
Netherlands. In 1974 he founded the SchoenbergEnsemble, of which he
was the violist and artistic director until 1991. During 33 years,
fromits founding in 1976 until the end of the quartets existence in
2009, he has been the violistof the Schoenberg Quartet; with this
group he performed in many countries and recorded35 CD's, including
the complete works by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern and Zemlinsky.
The
Schoenberg Quartet played nearly 100 concerts in the legendary
AmsterdamConcertgebouw Hall.
During the 37 years of his life on stage Henk Guittart gave many
world premires(including works by Schoenberg and Zemlinsky which he
rediscovered) and collaboratedwith many composers, a.o. Louis
Andriessen, John Adams, Jonathan Berger, LuigiDallapiccola,
Jonathan Dove, Berthold Goldschmidt, Sofia Gubaidulina, Maurizio
Kagel,Otto Ketting, Igor Markevitch, Luigi Nono, Steve Reich,
Fredric Rzewski, Alfred Schnittke,Valentin Silvestrov and Isang
Yun.
From 1991 until 2001 he performed with oboist Han de Vries and
pianist Ivo Janssen.They recorded original works for this unique
combination by Klughardt, Hindemith, Loeffler
and Kahn for cd. As a chamber musician and viola-soloist Henk
Guittart performed andrecorded with The Netherlands Wind Ensemble,
Deutsche Bachsolisten, ConsortiumClassicum, Stuttgart Piano Trio
and St.Lawrence String Quartet. All together he mademore then 60
recordings.
In 1987 Henk Guittart was the first recipient of the 3-M
Music-Laureate, The Netherlands'most prestigious celebration of
artists. He was also awarded the Lifelong Membership ofthe Friends
of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute in Los Angeles, an honour which
he shareswith Pierre Boulez, Felix Galimir and Eugene Lehner.
Henk Guittart edited a new publication of the Schoenberg String
Trio op.45 and made
arrangements for string ensembles of Schoenbergs Wind Quintet
op.26 and the Six littlePiano Pieces op.19. He also made a version
for viola and piano of Alban Bergs FourPieces for clarinet and
piano op.5.
Guittart was head of the chamber music department of the Royal
Conservatory in TheHague from 1979 until 1984, and in 1990/1991 he
was appointed in the position ofconductor/chamber-music coach at
the Rotterdam Codarts Academy of Music and at theMaastricht Academy
for Music. During the last decade he was a guest conductor andguest
professor at the music academies in Budapest, Princeton, Los
Angeles, Dresden,The Hague, Amsterdam, Cologne, Moscow, Stanford,
London (Guildhall School of Music)and Manchester.
As a conductor Henk Guittart has a wide range of repertoire,
from the Viennese classics,and many works from the Second Viennese
School, to brand-new music, including music-theatre and opera. As a
conductor he recorded works by Kurt Weill, Jonathan Dove
andJonathan Berger, as well as Bruckner, Wagner, Debussy, Busoni,
Berg, Webern,Zemlinsky, Schoenberg, Justin Christensen, Brian
Current and Zosha di Castri. He led thefirst Dutch performances of
Mahlers Fourth Symphony and Bruckner's Seventh Symphonyin the
versions for chamber orchestra.
From the fall of 2006 Henk Guittart has served as artistic
advisor of music programs at TheBanff Centre for the Arts, where he
also has been faculty during fall, winter, and summerprograms. At
the Banff Centre he coached countless young artists and ensembles
and
conducted works by John Adams, Anton Bruckner, Jonathan Dove,
Jonathan Berger,Morton Feldman, John Taverner, Taylor Brook, Van
Bree, Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven,Haydn, Dvorak, Strauss,
Schoenberg, Berg, Debussy, Busoni.
