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Henning Bolte

Music offers sharing a home

About Me

Music journalist contributing to German, Dutch and Northern American print media, online-magazines and radio.

Born in the Harz-mountains once one of the most important mining regions in Germany (silver, lead, copper, zinc) right in the middle of now reunited Germany. In my twenties, I moved to the western lowlands of Holland where one of my ancestors came from. I am now living in the city of Amsterdam where also my daughter Vania and my son Dikran live. I grew up with the myths of the Harz-mountains, crowded by witches, dwarfs and angels as a source and stimulant for my imagination and fantasy (Goethe, the Grimm brothers, Heine, they all delved into the treasures of the folk-beliefs of this region).

My first sound memory is the sound of fresh snow and crackling ice. ”Day O” by Harry Belafonte is the first full song I remember from my childhood (at the age of five). Charles Lloyd Quartet - “Journey Within” was the first jazz record I ever bought. Sounds and music are the most important source of health, beliefs and inspiration for all my life. In the early nineties I met Lebanese ûd-player Rabih Abou-Khalil which boosted my writing about music.

At the beginning of the new century I got involved in the music world more and more, all while working as an educational linguist at the university (affiliated to the University College Utrecht). I got involved in radio-work for Dutch concertzender, served in juries and act as advisor to the Arts Council of the Netherlands and to the Dutch Fund For The Performing Arts currently. I am co-programmer/-presenter of the concert-series pianolab.Amsterdam at the Goetheinstitut.