Pieter-Jan Belder

Pieter-Jan Belder (1966) studied the recorder with Ricardo Kanji at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, and the harpsichord with Bob van Asperen at the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatory. He graduated in 1990 and immediately joined the staff of the Sweelinck Conservatory as coach and accompanist to the class of Walter van Hauwe. From 2001 - 2004 he taught harpsichord at the Rotterdam Conservatory. Since 1990 he has had a flourishing career as a harpsichordist, clavichord player, organist, forte-pianist and a recorder player.

He has played at several international festivals, such as the Barcelona ‘Festival de Musica Antiga’, The ‘Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht’, the Berlin ’Tage für Alte Musik’, The Festival van Vlaanderen, Festival Potsdam Sancoussi, the Sacharov Festival in Nizhny Novgorod and the Leipzig ‘Bachfest’ . He regularly plays solo recitals. He is also very much in demand as a continuo player with such ensembles as the Radio Chamber Orchestra, Collegium Vocale Gent, Il Fondamento, Camarata Trajectina, the Gesualdo Consort and de Nederlandse Bachvereniging. He has worked with conductors such as Frans Brüggen, Ton Koopman, Paul Dombrecht, Philippe Herreweghe, Kenneth Montgomery and René Jacobs. Belder also accompanied soloists such as Johannette Zomer, Nico van der Meel, Harry van der Kamp, Sigiswald Kuijken, Rémy Baudet, Kate Clark and Saskia Coolen. He has made numerous radio and television recordings for the Dutch broadcasting companies, Belgium and German radio. Belder conducts his own ensemble Musica Amphion.

In 1997 Pieter-Jan Belder was awarded the third prize at the Hamburg NDR Music Prize harpsichord competition. In 2000 he was winner of the Leipzig Bach harpsichord competition. In 2005 he made his debut as a conductor in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, conducting Musica Amphion

He has made many CD-recordings, most of them solo and chamber music productions. In 1999 Belder was invited to cooperate in two important CD recording projects: 10 CDs in a complete Bach recording (Brilliant), and a CD in an Edison awarded complete recording of all the Keyboard works of the Dutch composer Jan Pieterszn. Sweelinck (NM classics) In 2001 he recorded several CD’s in a complete Mozart recording (Brilliant), including the KV 107 harpsichord concertos and a CD with variations for pianoforte. Currently Belder is working on a CD project (36 CD’s), recording all the harpsichord sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, a project which will occupy him until 2007, a memorial year of this great Italian/Spanish composer (1685-1757).

In 2004 a complete recording of Telemann’s ‘Tafelmusik’ was released under his baton, as well as a CD focusing on two centuries of recorder music. The recording of Corelli’s Opera Omnia with Musica Amphion was released in april 2005. In 2006 he recorded Bach’s Brandenburg concertos as well his concertos for 2,3&4 harpsichords with Musica Amphion. Currently Musica Amphion is recording the complete chamber music by Henry Purcell.