Henco de Berg
More than 478 times played this month
The blind musician Henco de Berg was born in 1967 in Drachten, Friesland. He studied organ and piano under Ernest Gervais, the organist of the St. Agatha Church in Lisse, and later refined his skills at the Rotterdam Conservatory with Jet Dubbeldam, Arie Keijzer, and Maurice Pirenne. For organ, he obtained the diplomas of Teaching and Performing Musician, as well as a special qualification in organ improvisation. De Berg also studied music theory with Henk de Croon at the Fontys Conservatory in Tilburg. Arie Keijzer and Jan Welmers were his mentors in perfecting his improvisation technique. Twice, he participated in the improvisation classes for organ and piano taught by Loïc Mallié at the International Summer Academy in Haarlem. Piet Kee instructed him in the interpretation of Bach.
From 2002 to 2017, De Berg was the head organ teacher at the Fontys Conservatory in Tilburg. As an organist, he serves at the ‘Église Wallonne’ in Breda, where he plays the König organ dating from 1763. He is also active as a concert organist.
As an improviser, De Berg has recorded a large number of compositional forms, including Symphony, Sonata, Trio Sonata, Symphonic Fantasy and double fugue, various sets of variations, as well as a musical rendering of the Stations of the Cross. These recordings were made on the Müller organ of the Grote or St. Bavokerk in Haarlem, the Bätz organ of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in The Hague, the Cavaillé-Coll organ of La Madeleine in Paris, the Stahlhuth-Jann organ of St. Martin in Dudelange (Luxembourg), and the Marcussen organ of the Laurenskerk in Rotterdam.
Additionally, he produced two CDs at Saint Martin in Dudelange featuring works by Max Reger (Second Sonata in D minor, Opus 60), Louis Vierne, Marcel Dupré, and Olivier Messiaen (including L’Ascension de Notre-Seigneur), and a CD on the Bruckner organ of the Stiftskirche in Sankt Florian, Austria, with works by Hendrik Andriessen, Louis Vierne, Jean Langlais, Olivier Messiaen, and De Berg himself. He also recorded an album on the Gottfried Silbermann organ of the Stadtkirche in Oederan, featuring works by Johann Pachelbel, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Johann Gottfried Walther.
