This is Chrit...
My name is Chrit van Rijt, I was born in 1969 in Bunde, a village near Maastricht (which is a city in the south of The Netherlands). At the age of nine I started playing the horn, as a junior member of the wind band in Bunde. When I learned about classical music, especially the beautiful horn solo in the second movement of Tchaikovski's Fifth Symphony, I decided to become a hornplayer in a professional symphony orchestra. I got quite far in my career as a musician, but finally I did not graduate as a professional hornplayer, but as an electrical engineer.
Currently I live in Venlo (just a bit more to the north in The Netherlands) where I work as a software developer at Océ-Technologies. Nowadays I'm a bit less active as a hornplayer than I used to be. I'm not a member of any orchestra, but I often play as a substitute in different orchestras in Venlo, like the Venloos Symfonie Orkest. At my work I regularly organise "lunch break concerts", and of course I like to perform there myself once in a while.
A large part of the time I spend on "the horn" I do not really play the horn, but I do various things for the Dutch Horn Society. I'm not only one of the editors of the magazine "Uijlenspieghel", but I'm also a webmaster of the Dutch Horn Society web site. Finally I am also the Dutch Horn Society representative for the province of Limburg.
A very special "musical" event in which I take part every year is the Carnival in Maastricht. Several nights I take my horn to the town and have a lot of fun making music with many other people (who I actually don't know at all)!
Musical education
| 1978-1981 | Pupil of Harmonie St. Agnes Bunde, I played Eb horn. |
| 1981-1986 | Horn lessons from Nico Housen at the music school in Maastricht. |
| 1986-1987 | Preparatory study at the Conservatorium Maastricht, lessons from Hubert Crüts. |
| 1987-1988 | Horn study with Erich Penzel, Conservatorium Maastricht. During the second year of my study Penzel advised me to think about a different career than becoming a professional horn player. |
| 1988-1989 | The remainder of the second year at the Conservatorium Maastricht I again took lessons from my first teacher, Nico Housen. |
Orchestras in which I played
| 1979-1994 | Harmonie St. Agnes Bunde, the wind band in the town where I was born. My father played the trumpet in that band, so I wanted to learn to play an instrument as well. After several years of playing an Eb horn, I got my first "real" horn. |
| 1983-1988 | Orchestras and ensembles at the op de music school in Maastricht: the wind band, a brass ensemble, the symphony orchestra, a classical wind quintet, and many others. In all these orchestras and ensembles I learned probably the most important lesson you can learn at a music school: having fun when making music! |
| 1986-1991 | The Dutch National Youth Wind Orchestra. This orchestra played in "all" famous concert halls in The Netherlands, made radio and CD recordings, but the most exciting event was the tour to the United States, with fantastic concerts in Boston and in San Antonio, Texas. |
| 1986-1997 | Harmonie Ster der Toekomst in Maastricht. In this wind band I played the tuba, next to the horn, and for several months I even was the conductor. |
| 1986-1998 | Substitute in many orchestras in or near Maastricht, among others Fanfare Concordia Ulestraten, Harmonie St. Pieter, the Avanti Kapel, the Universiteits Orkest and Sinfonietta Geleen. |
| 1991-1992 | The Utrechtsch Studenten Concert, a very good symphony orchestra that regularly performs in the Vredenburg concert hall. The most beautiful concert for me was the performance of Dvorak's Cello Concerto, in which I had the chance to play the wonderful horn solo. |
| 1991-1992 | The Thalia ensemble, a wind quintet of five musicians of the Utrechtsch Studenten Concert. With this quintet we have played more or less the complete repertoire for wind quintet! |
| 1992-1994 | Acapella Capabel, a fantastic show band! This band started as a traditional "Zaat Hermenieke" (carnival bands in Maastricht) and developed into a party band that played at many occasions through the year. Of course I did not join this band for serious horn playing (so I played the TUBA instead), but it was great fun making music for an enthousiastic audience. |
| 1997-now | Substitute in many orchestras in or near Venlo, among others the Venloos Symfonie Orkest and the Tegels Symphonie Orkest. |
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