Remy van Kesteren

“Remy is both musically, as well as technically, an exceptional musician.”

Jaap van Zweden, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Conductor of the Year 2012

When one thinks of a harpist, presumably images of delicately strumming nymphs with long blonde hair will pop up. But now there is Remy van Kesteren. He has won international awards, reached 500,000 visitors during the Night of the Proms and taken on numerous ambitious projects, including a collaboration with the famous ballet choreographer, Hans van Manen, in 2014. At the age of five, he was lured off the swing by a mysterious sound from an open window – the sound of the harp. Aged ten, Remy van Kesteren entered the Conservatory of Utrecht and before he had finished his studies with the highest distinction, he could already look back on two successful editions of his own Dutch Harp Festival. Remy attributes his rapidly developing career to his former teacher, Erika Waardenburg, the purveyor of the Dutch harp scene. He does not feel bound to ‘prevailing ideas’ about the harp.

With thanks to Guido van Oorschot, de Volkskrant

“I want to let the world hear what the harp is capable of; it is an instrument with which you can tell the most beautiful stories. And that's what music is all about: telling a personal story! The power of a musician, who plays honestly and purely, without compromises, but with a large degree of risk-taking, is what inspires and drives me in music. It is this ‘creation’ of music that is the core of my desire to perform. And this conviction I want to share with the audience.”

photo: Marco Borggreve