Han Kapaan

More than 83.3k times played this month

Han Kapaan
It is stated on many records or CDs: with the collaboration of Han Kapaan, oboe. The oboist traveled all over the world with his instrument, even to the Dutch embassy of Saudi Arabia.

He recently played in the Reformed Church of Beesd, the place where Abraham Kuyper first became a pastor. A symposium was dedicated to the foreman of the "kleyne luyden". Kapaan was given the opportunity to add musical flair to the meeting. “I played with the pianist-organist Marjan Fey from Heukelum, with whom I often perform. There wasn't much room, so I just played like that." Kapaan makes himself small and a bit crooked. “I even bumped into Marjan with my arm. But it was an atmosphere. We played compositions by Saint-Saens and César Franck, among others. Later I spoke to former Prime Minister Balkenende. He said: I really liked what you played ten minutes before my speech, it really lifted me up.”

Kapaan hands over a paper on which he has typed some biographical details, to support the interview. For example, it states that he has been active as a soloist at home and abroad for 48 years. And that he started playing the clarinet as a six-year-old boy. “I remember well that my parents once woke me up because the famous oboist Jaap Stotijn was on the radio. The sound of the oboe really appealed to me. I thought it was a beautiful instrument, so melancholy, but also so cheerful. During military service I played another instrument: the saxophone in an orchestra. After my military service, I picked up the oboe again and started studying with Stotijn and Cees van der Kraan at the Amsterdam Conservatory.”
Kapaan was 23 or 24 when he gave his first solo concert, with organ. In his early days he performed frequently in Leiden with the organist Joop Brons, brother of the pianist Willem Brons. Kapaan recently played at a birthday concert for Joop Brons, who had turned 85.