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The Dutch tenor, music teacher and conductor, Coen Honig, started singing at the Vrije School in Rotterdam. At the age of 17 he became a member of the Rotterdam Baroque Ensemble, where he sang his first small solos under the direction of Kees Glaubitz. He took singing lessons with Barbara Endendijk and started singing in the Toonkunst Koor in Rotterdam (Director: Jan Eelkema). He soon became a member of the small choir there. In addition to his training as a nurse, singing soon took up about the same amount of time.
Coen Honig sang song recitals with Arjan Hageman and Kees Langeveld at the piano and got his first important solo as an amateur singer with the Rotterdam Baroque Ensemble, where he had the opportunity to sing the role of Aeneas in the opera Dido and Aeneas by Purcell. At that time, around 1987, he moved to The Hague, became a member of Het Residentie Kamerkoor (Director: Gerard Akkerhuis; and later, after his death, Jos Vermunt), took singing lessons with Sylvia Schlüter and sang in several ensembles.
Coen Honig had now graduated as a nurse. The desire to pursue singing professionally led him to decide to attend the Schumann Academie. With the help of Sheila Barnes, and later Ronald Klekamp, Margreet Honig and Ingrid Kapelle, he graduated as a classical singer in 2010.
The Dartington International Summerschool and the AIMS International Music School were important in Coen Honig's musical development. He sang solo in Baroque operas conducted by Anthony Rooley, and in master-classes by Evelyn Tubb, Emma Kirkby, John Shirley-Quirk and others. He also sang roles in operas by Puccini (Gianni Schicchi, La Boheme) and Francis Poulenc (Dialogue des Carmelites) in the AIMS courses. He sang many solos in J.S. Bach cantatas and in the Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248). Afterwards at the Ridderkerkse COV, he also performed the bass solos in Haydn's Stabat Mater, Passionen by Heinrich Schütz, Via Crucis by Franz Liszt and much more. On February 18, 2023, he could be heard heard in the small solo in Felix Mendelssohn's Elias, at the Ridderkerkse COV, conducted by André Vis. The concert took take place in De Levensbron. |
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During a student performance, the women once sang the entire Stabat Mater by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, and Coen Honig conducted it. Everyone liked it so much that the following year he organized a concert with Membra Jesu Nostri by Dietrich Buxtehude. Very good students sang solo, people who were less confident but also sang very well in small ensembles and everyone sang in the choir. He liked this concept.
Two years later, J. Haydn's Sieben Letzte Worte unseres Erloesers am Kreuz was performed in the same way. Coen Honig gained further recognition as a conductor when he conducted Purcell's opera "Dido and Aeneas" for the Stichting Vocale Muziek Den Haag, with professional soloists, the professional orchestra Concerto Valiante and chamber choir Cappell' Affetta. In February 2016, Coen Honig performed G.F. Handel's Brockes Passion, HWV 48 with the same orchestra and almost all his students and former students. Trade out. he receives conducting lessons from Patrick Pranger. |
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Since 2000, Coen Honig is also active as a music teacher, private singing lessons for amateurs and professionals, voice coaching, ensemble coaching. Since August 2018, he also works hypno-therapist in his clinique Coen Honig: Hypnose in de Residentie. He currently lives in The Hague, the Netherlands. Among his pupils: Geert Koskamp (Tenor/Counter-tenor). |
