André Arends is a versatile artist: musician – composer – theatremaker – cultural entrepreneur and enterprising artist. He is a networker. André Arends brings artists with all different kind of backgrounds together, working on the same project for a certain amount of time.       

THEATRE

From 1998 till 2004 he was cofounder and member of the music theatre company “TAMAR Music Theatre”. He made many musictheatre productions – mainly - for younger people:

KWAAIE MOEDERS 1998; KNALROOD 1999; DE ZAGERIJ 2000; PIERRE DU BONBON 2001 ;

TROMPET, TROMPETTER, TROMPETST 2002; TONGUES 2003 and ZARIFA 2004.

He worked together with different writers (Heleen Verburg, Tom Sijtsma…), directors (Bas Zuyderland, Eric Vliegenberg…) choreographers (Beppie Blankert, Feri de Geus…), and designers (Theo Tienhooven, Laura de Josselin de Jong) amongst others.

In the early spring of 2005 André Arends decided to leave TAMAR and start a new company called ARTS & VISION.

ARTS & VISION is a company making innovative multidisciplinary productions in an international context. ARTS & VISION is a safe place where people come together to create. It is a place where people make connections with each other driven by curiosity and playing. Not bothered by judgments from others but feeling stronger through the talents and the power of others. The company visualizes ideas by creating artistic high leveled products with a multidisciplinary character. The organization culture is focused on fantasy, imagination, creativity, ingenuity and innovation.  

ARTS & VISION has also a social responsibility and wants to share the knowledge and experience with others by giving opportunities to younger artists, who develop their ideas under the umbrella of the company. ARTS & VISION has a flat organization structure focused on personal growth and development of the individual.

Productions in progress are:

• An oratorium ‘VOICES’ with writer/philosopher Hélène Gelèns October 2006.
• An opera “de Kleine Kapitein’ after the book of the famous Dutch writer Paul Biegel will be premiered in February 2007.
• A multimedia performance ‘Nightwalking' premiered in the summer of 2007.
• A musictheatre monologue ‘HANS’ October 2007.

COMPOSER

He studied composition at the Hilversum Conservatory with Jurre Haanstra.

Until recently the famous Dutch composer Otto Ketting was his artistic coach and inspirator.

He composed many pieces for musictheatre productions. Besides his writing for theatre and film, André Arends composes chambermusic. He wrote IF NOT, NOT.. (2002) for the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet; BRIDE OF THE WIND (2002) for the Orion Ensemble; HEADS (2003) duo for alto saxophone and viola…. 

He made also many arrangements and instrumentations, e.g. STRINGQUARTETS OF DEBUSSY AND ROUSSEL; AMERICAN IN PARIS OF GEORGE GERSHWIN; BOLERO OF MAURICE RAVEL; ERIK’S WONDERBAARLIJKE REIS OF WILLEM – FREDERIK BON

And many arrangements for bigbands, schoolbands, stagebands, wind ensembles and popgroups.

He developed educational material for three volumes of the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet – method, and 10 pieces for wind instrument and piano. (published by Bergez Music Publishing).

He joined the composers project called “Composer 03/04” organized by the Walter Maas Huis en the Gaudeamus Foundation.

MUSICIAN

Studied classical saxophone at the Conservatory of Utrecht. He took lessons from Ed Bogaard, Iwan Roth, Francois Daneels and Daniel Duffayet. He graduated cum laude in 1988.

He played in several Dutch orchestras as the Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Dutch Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Residentie Orchestra en the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. As soloist he performed the Ballade of Frank Martin, the Ballade of Henri Tomasi, the doubleconcerto of Jean Rivier and the concerto for alto – saxophone of Alexander Glazounow.

As a student he was one of the co - founders of the famous Aurelia Saxophone Quartet. The Aurelia Saxophone Quartet has performed in concert halls all over the world such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Gewandhaus zu Leipzig and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. They have given numerous concerts in Europe, Asia and North-America. Furthermore their performances on television and radio attract a growing international circle of critics and music lovers.

Original music for saxophone quartet - both traditional and contemporary works - form a mainstay for the ASQ and they have prompted several composers to write works for saxophone quartet. What makes their repertoire so extraordinary are their own adaptations of e.g. string quartets by Debussy and Ravel, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, The Art of the Fugue by J.S. Bach and several Piazzolla compositions.

The ASQ performs largely without a score, which makes their concerts quite unusual. They have opted for this relatively risky strategy in order to achieve the optimal degree of concentration among the audience as well as with themselves.

Considered to be one of the leading saxophone quartets in the world, the four musicians of Aurelia are also members of the renowned Netherlands Wind Ensemble and regularly perform in orchestras such as the Royal (Amsterdam) Concertgebouw Orchestra.

The Aurelia Saxophone Quartet's recordings can be found on Etcetera, NM Classics and Vanguard Classics. In 1987 they made their first CD , featuring soprano saxophonist Johan van der Linden's arrangement of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Both van der Linden's arrangement and the quartet's performances have been crowned with prizes. In 1988 their first CD won the coveted Edison Award in Holland for the best recording by young musicians. Many releases followed and were received enthusiastically by the international press.

In 1998 he left the quartet. From that time on André Arends focused on composing and developing multidisciplinary performances.

André Arends can be heard on several recordings:

Discography

ORGANIZER AND MANAGER

André Arends worked as an advisor for The FAPK in The Hague for the multidisciplinary commission and a special youth commission, and for the cultural government of the province of Noord – Brabant.