Henk Neven is a versatile Dutch baritone who divides his performances among opera, oratorio, and lieder, and in each realm he has achieved notable success. His voice has a rich, creamy tone with plenty of power and flexibility, his resources under seemingly perfect control. It is no surprise to
Neven's fans that in the realm of lieder he has been compared favorably with
Fischer-Dieskau.
Neven has sung a variety of operatic roles, from
Purcell (Aeneas) and
Mozart (Don Giovanni) to
Puccini (Schaunard in La bohème) and
Messiaen (Frère Léon in St. François d'Assise). In concert he has sung
Bach's St. Matthew Passion, the Requiems of
Dvorák and
Fauré, and he appeared in the January 2012 premiere in Utrecht of
Marijn Simons' Fourth Symphony.
Neven has sung lieder by
Beethoven,
Schubert,
Schumann,
Brahms, Carl Loewe, and others, and has recorded for such labels as Opus Arte, Naxos, and Naïve. He has appeared throughout Europe, the U.K., and Australia at such venues as the Netherlands Opera, the Paris National Opera, Staatsoper Berlin Unter den Linden, La Monnaie, and many others, including major music festivals.
Neven has worked with such conductors as
Daniel Barenboim,
Edo de Waart,
Christophe Rousset, Armin Jordan, and
Marc Minkowski.
Henk Neven was born in 1976 in the Rotterdam suburb of Krimpen aan den Ijssel, Netherlands. He sang in his childhood and teens and went on to study at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where his teachers included
Maarten Koningsberger and Margreet Honig. In 2002
Neven received a diploma from the conservatory's New Opera Academy and he graduated cum laude from the Conservatory the following year. He continued studies through master classes with
Hartmut Höll,
Jard van Nes,
Graham Johnson, and
Graham Clark. He still works with Margreet Honig and with
Robert Holl.
Neven was regularly appearing in concerts even during his student years. In 2004 he sang bass solos in Choir I on a Channel Classics CD of the
Bach St. John Passion led by
Jos van Veldhoven.
Neven rose quickly and in 2006 appeared on the highly acclaimed Naxos recording of the Carl Loewe Passion Oratorio. In 2008
Neven was named winner of the prestigious Fortis MeesPierson Award of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. More prizes and citations followed: the ensuing year he was awarded a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and also selected as a BBC New Generation Artist.
2011 was a watershed year in the career of
Neven: in January he debuted to great acclaim at London's Wigmore Hall with pianist
Hans Eijsackers in a program of songs by
Beethoven,
Fauré,
Ibert, and Loewe; and in April he received the Netherlands' highest honor for a classical artist, the Dutch Music Prize. More fortune came to
Neven with the June release of his first solo recording,
Auf einer Burg, an Onyx CD containing
Schumann's Liederkreis and various lieder of Carl Loewe. The recording was nominated for a Gramophone award. In 2011
Neven also branched out into teaching when he accpeted a guest faculty post at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.