Theo Bruins was a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Bruins' earliest piano lessons were with his mother. His professional piano studies commenced in 1946 with Jaap Spaanderman

Jaap Spaanderman

Jacobus Hendrikus Bastiaan Spaanderman jr. was a Dutch pianist, cellist, conductor and piano and conducting pedagogue....

 at the Conservatoire of the Amsterdam Muzieklyceum Foundation (later part of the Amsterdam Conservatoire). Starting in 1948 he studied with Yves Nat

Yves Nat

Yves Nat was a French pianist and composer.-Biography:Yves Nat was born in Béziers and showed an early aptitude for both piano and composition. By the age of seven he was allowed to improvise each Sunday at the organ of Béziers' cathedral during mass...

 and from 1951 studied composition with Kees van Baaren

Kees van Baaren

Kees van Baaren was a Dutch composer and teacher.Van Baaren was born in Enschede. His early studies were in Berlin with Rudolph Breithaupt and Friedrich Koch at the Stern conservatory. After returning to the Netherlands in 1929, he studied with Willem Pijper...

.

In the meanwhile he had started a successful career as a performing concert pianist, which took him to North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, and throughout Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, as well as to Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

. Amongst others he played as a soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. For a recital in London he received the Harriet Cohen

Harriet Cohen

Harriet Cohen CBE was a British pianist.-Biography:Harriet Cohen was born in London and studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music under Tobias Matthay, having won the Ada Lewis scholarship at the age of 12. She made her debut at a Chappell's Sunday concert at the Queen's Hall a year later...

 Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

 Medal in 1959. He taught at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

. Among his students are Bart Berman

Bart Berman

Bart Berman is a Dutch-Israeli pianist and composer, best known as an interpreter of Franz Schubert and 20th century music....

 and Fred Oldenburg.

Bruins' compositions are few in number, but nevertheless well noted. All his works were published by Donemus

Donemus

Donemus is the Dutch institute dealing with the documentation of contemporary music composed in the Netherlands....

 and collected on one album by the Q Disc label. His Syncope for harpsichord

Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...

(1992) appears also on a collection by NM Music.

Complete list of works

• Six pièces brèves (1950)
• Concerto per pianoforte ed orchestra (1952)
• Sonate per pianoforte (1955)
• Sei Studi (1963)
• Quartet '84 for piano solo (1984)
• Syncope for harpsichord (1992)

Biography

• Emanuel Overbeeke: Moeizame componeerarbeid (Dutch
  Dutch language
  Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
  
   for: Difficult Composition Work). Mens en Melodie, February 1997.

External links

• Theo Bruins' page at Donemus