Johannes Boer
Johannes Boer, musicologist (Utrecht University) and viola da gamba player (Royal Conservatoire The Hague with Wieland Kuijken), dedicated much of his career to combining both disciplines.
He performed solos in Bach’s Passions with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra. As an ensemble player, he co-created The Royal Consort (Globe Records) for viol consort repertoire and founded ‘t Uitnement Kabinet (NMClassics) to perform Schenck and other Dutch music from the Golden Age. He regularly performed Renaissance viol with the Huelgas Ensemble (Sony Classical). He participated in CD projects of Camerata Trajectina and Cantus Cölln (Harmonia Mundi, Altbachisches Archiv, Schütz Symphoniae Sacrae).
In 2002, he became the executive leader of the Dutch Foundation for Historical Performance Practice (STIMU) and organised symposia at the Utrecht Early Music Festival. These meetings brought estimated musicologists and musicians together. For a decade, Johannes Boer was connected to the Utrecht Festival organisation as a member of the editorial board of Tijdschrift Oude Muziek. He contributed with articles, interviews, CD- and book reviews.
Several STIMU symposium proceedings saw the light of day with him as a (co-) editor, such Musique de Joye, A viola da gamba Miscellany, Festschrift Alfred Lessing, Passaggio in Italia. Passaggio in Italia (by Dinko Fabris and Margaret Murata) was a successful Stimu symposium and festival in August 2006. Many Monteverdi scholars presented lectures on topics that would later form the foundation of Johannes’s doctoral studies.
In the same year, Johannes was asked to accept the position of head of the Early Music department of the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. He contributed to a fundamental development in the curriculum (expansion of research in the master studies), which resulted in a substantial change in the school's profile on an international level. In his time as Head of the Department, many high-profile projects took place, such as the Handel Year celebration in 2009 in The Hague, the Monteverdi Vespers tour in 2010, and a pathbreaking cooperation with the Orchestra of the 18th Century in 2014, including Frans Brüggen’s last concert. Johannes Boer’s doctoral trajectory in the docARTES program started in 2014, and as a member of the ACPA of Leiden University, he participated in many events organised by this institution.
In 2018, his doctoral research project production of La Tragedia di Claudio M. was performed in Theater de Regentes Den Haag, followed by AINSI in Maastricht and finally in the Opera Festival of Copenhagen. Johannes Boer participated in many conferences of artistic research and higher education in the arts (The Hague, Amsterdam, Ghent, Wroclaw, Oporto, Malmø, Cremona) to share his research findings.
Since 2020, Johannes has been active as a senior teacher-researcher at the Royal Conservatoire, mainly working as part of the school’s lectorate on master and undergraduate research training and supervising students in group and individual sessions.
