Wim ten Have

Wim (Willem) ten Have (Amsterdam, November 28, 1929 – Zandvoort, November 18, 2025) was a Dutch musician, viola and viola d’amore player, conductor, pedagogue and editor. Wim ten Have studied viola at the Amsterdam Conservatory, graduating in 1953 in the class of Klaas Boon, who was then principal violist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. After graduating, Wim ten Have played in several Dutch orchestras, starting in the Amsterdam-based Kunstmaandorkest that which later became the Amsterdams Philharmonisch Orkest (Apho), currently the Nederlands Philharmonish Orkest (Nedpho). He was solo viola player and leader of the viola group between 1960 and 1970. Wim ten Have's interest in historically informed performance began in 1959 when, on the recommendation of violist Mieke Feldkamp, harpsichordist and conductor Gustav Leonhardt invited him to join his Leonhardt Consort, then in its initial and experimental stage. Leonhardt provided him with an instrument made by the Bolognese luthier Giovanni Tononi from around 1700, which had belonged to Leonhardt's mother. Afterwards, Wim ten Have played in virtually all the most representative period performance ensembles of the early days of this movement: Leonhardt Consort, Concentus Musicus Wien (Nikolaus Harnoncourt), La Petite Bande (Sigiswald Kuijken), Concerto Amsterdam (Jaap Schröder) and the Barokorkest van de Nederlandse Bachvereniging (of which he was the first artistic director); he also collaborated with countless European Early Music ensembles in concerts and recordings, such as Esterhazy Quartet (Jaap Schröder), Ensemble 415 (Chiara Banchini, Switzerland), Capella di San Petronio (Lieuwe Tamminga, Italy), La Real Cámara (Emilio Moreno, Spain), De Egelentier (Netherlands), Het Nederlands Barok Orkest (of which he was the first principal conductor). Between 1970 and 1975, Wim ten Have worked in Denmark as a member of the Esbjerg Ensemble, performing not only Classical and Romantic repertoire, but also a large amount of contemporary music. In 1975 together with the Danish violinist Troels Svendsen, he founded the Baroque ensemble Den Danske Violonbande in Copenhagen. In Amsterdam in1981, Frans Brüggen founded the Orchestra of the 18th Century, with Wim ten Have as one of its key figures, serving as principal viola until 1996, and on occassion replacing Frans Brüggen as musical director and conductor. His musicological work as a researcher was particularly noteworthy; he recovered, revised, and prepared practical editions and compilations of instrumental suites of Rameau's operas, later performed and recorded by the orchestra, based on autograph manuscripts preserved in French archives and libraries (Dardanus, Acante et Céphise, Naïs, Zoroastre, Castor et Polux, Les Fêtes d’Hébé, Les Boréades and Les Indes Galantes) As a pedagogue, he was principal professor of viola and chamber music at the Groningen Conservatory, Netherlands from 1974 to 1988, inspiring countless students to embark on their careers in Early Music with original instruments through his lessons and the institution's string orchestra under his direction. During those years, Wim ten Have also conducted until 1985 the Groningen String Ensemble founded in1979. He was also a visiting professor at the Academy of Early Music of the University of Salamanca (USAL), Spain (1990-2004), as well as at the Orlando Festival in Kerkrade,The Netherlands, for many years. One of the most interesting contributions of this Dutch musician, apart from his significance as a performer and important pioneer in the Early Music movement, has been the recovery, revision, and publication of unpublished scores from the 17th to the 19th centuries. In his later years, he made numerous arrangements, mainly for strings, but also for voice and string quartet (Schubert’s Winterreise). His editions and arrangements can be found at Kammermusikverlag Hehenwarter