 IntroductionChris Hinze, son of the renowned violinist and conductor Frits Hinze (NIROM Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Jakarta) who was a musical child prodigy in Indonesia, graduated with honors from the Music Conservatory in the Netherlands and worked for the Dutch AVRO and KRO broadcasting organizations, among others and left the Netherlands shortly before the Second World War to become a conductor for the Nirom Philharmonic Orchestra in Jakarta/Indonesia. Chris therefore proves that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. |
 Youth & pianoChris Hinze started as a Jazz pianist and was initially taught by Eric Krantz and later by Frans Elsen between the ages of 16 to 18. He soon played in a range of jazz clubs and at the age of 20, he went to France, Germany, and Turkey working as a professional pianist in the German night club scene and for the American Army & Airforce Clubs. In those days, many musicians worked for those clubs because the Americans loved jazz and the working hours were short. At the time, he also played in the METROME orchestra together with alto saxophonist Karel Reijs, Rita’s brother. |
Studying the flute The LP “Opus de Funk” with jazz flutist Frank Wess inspired him to such an extent that he decided to return to the Netherlands to learn to play the flute and where at the tender age of 26, he was taken on by master flutist Frans Vester at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague. Chris Hinze was a jazz boy in heart and soul and fortunately Frans Vester was open to that. At the time, Hinze met bassist Dick van der Capellen (ex-bassist of the famous Diamond Five). They formed the Dick van der Capellen Trio together with drummer Cees See alternated with Martin van Duinhoven or Ruud Pronk. Through this trio, which gained massive acclaim from the press with the LP “The Present is Past,” Boy Edgar discovered Hinze. This resulted in an invitation to be guest soloist with the Boy’s Big Band at various festivals and a concert with Nina Simone in the Kurhaus in The Hague. Hinze collaborated on Boy’s LP “Finch Eye” through which he encountered the record company executive/producer (Artone/CBS) John Vis who asked him to make a record with improvisations of Baroque music, “Telemann my way” which resulted in Hinze’s first Edison.  |
 The start of a flute career/ Awards/Festivals & The Chris Hinze Combination (CHC)Another four Baroque/Jazz albums were to follow, of which two Bach albums together with Louis van Dijk. And then things moved quickly. Chris Hinze had graduated by then and right after, he won a scholarship to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston to study composition & arranging. By that time, he had also set up the jazz quartet the Chris Hinze Combination with which he won the international press award at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Commuting between Boston and The Hague, the jazz scene in Europe was at his feet, and he performed at practically all the big festivals with the CHC: The North Sea Jazz Festival four times, Montreux three times, Berlin, India, Australia, etc. |
More Recordings in the early 1970’s He was terribly busy during those years but still managed to go to India, Japan, and Indonesia for three months on a scholarship. In Japan, he recorded three LPs for Sony in a single week, two of which were with the famous shakuhachi flutist Hozan Yamamoto and one with Yamamoto and members of the Imperial Orchestra. (The CDs: “Kyorai”, “Keden” & “Mange” ) In Bombay, he recorded an LP with master bansuri flutist Raghunath Seth, and he stayed in Seth’s house for three weeks to become proficient in ragas and the bansuri flute.  |
 World musicHis interest in ethnic musical genres was ignited. The language of improvisation is international. He was perhaps the first musician in the Netherlands and Europe who made “world music” in the early 1970s, although the term did not exist at the time. The result was three LPs in Japan, several with Indian musicians including the world famous “Blue Glas” with the Karnataka College of Percussion from Bangalore, the LP “Kings of Reggae” with Peter Tosh and the famous rhythm duo Sly Dunbar, and the recently deceased Robbie Shakespeare, etc. |
Symphonic pieces & more awards One of his major passions at the time was composing major pieces. In 1972, he was commissioned to compose a suite for the Holland Festival. The result was “Live Music Now,” for 42 musicians and a string orchestra, which the Dutch broadcasting organization NOS broadcasted live. Hinze received the Beethoven Award from the city of Bonn for this composition. His other symphonic pieces include “New York” and “Parcival.” NOS broadcasted the one-and-a-half-hour “Parcival” concert live. He also won the “Prix D'Italia” for composers for his production “Mangala,” the Dutch Radio and TV industry submission in 1986. He received a total of three Edison Awards (from the Dutch gramophone industry) and one nomination. |
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 Over the past 20 years, the following gives a global summary of his performances in those years Hinze has divided his time between Europe and Asia, where he has traveled, performed, recorded, and studied. The following gives a global summary of his performances in those years. In 1992 and 1993, Chris Hinze visited Bhutan, Tibet, Thailand, China, and Japan. In early 1994, he and the Chris Hinze Combination were invited to do a concert tour through India. You can listen to the live recordings of this tour on the CD “Namaskar,” released in January 1995.  His Holiness the Dalai Lama & Junky XL At the end of the tour, Chris was invited to visit His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. Chris Hinze used extracts of the recorded text of the interview in his CD “Tibet Impressions” (Vols.1, 2 & 3) of which Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL) made several remixes. These ambient house remixes (made by producer/film score composer Tom Holkenborg, later known as Junkie XL) of two numbers from Hinze’s successful CD were enthusiastically received. That resulted in a long-term collaboration with Holkenborg, whereby Holkenborg was invited to contribute additional dance rhythms and the end mix of many of Chris’s albums, including the album “Senang” featuring Mike Brecker & Claron McFadden, among others. More albums followed between 1996 and 2000, including “TaiChi in Balans, vols.1 & 2”, “Chris Hinze & The Gyuto Monks Live,” and “Zen the Fire Within.”  |
More travel & recordings until 2021 After 2000, Chris Hinze went to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Birma looking for inspiration. Birma, in particular, made a big impression on him. A CD/DVD is expected in the near future. In 2001, Chris Hinze visited Vietnam and the Philippines. From 2002, he picked up from where he left off with the Chris Hinze Combination, resulting in the release of the CD “Akar Akar” feat. Monica Akihari (2002), the release of the double CD/DVD “Back on the Map” (2004), and an annual European tour with German photographer and world traveler Kai Uwe Küchler with the program “Visual Concerts.” In 2005, Chris Hinze visited Brazil and Mexico. In 2006, he started walking the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostella. Hinze then worked on the CD “Tibet Impressions, vol. 3,” and collected material for a tour in April and September 2007 with rapper Raymzter (with whom he recorded the single and clip “Fighting in the Schoolyard”) and the Moroccan singer Rajae Mouhandiz.  |
Chris Hinze Multimedia Solo Theatre Concerts While on Ibiza in 2008, he recorded the CD “The Art of Baroque – Jazz, Dance & World Music” with the CHC feat. Claron McFadden & Majid Bekkas and followed by a theatre tour in the Benelux countries. Between 2005 and 2019, Chris Hinze travelled the world to film and make music and meet fellow musicians. Of course, he also visited holy places in India, such as Bodh Gaya, the Ellora Caves, the Kumbh Mela, Varanassi, Madurai, etc. He went on to visit Indonesia, Australia, the Cook Islands, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, USA, Tibet, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, the Caribbean Islands, Brazil, etc., to collect further material for his new Chris Hinze Multimedia Solo Theatre Concerts. In the meantime, he produced various albums and performed across Europe with his Multimedia Solo Theatre Concerts “From Tibet to Tanger,” “Saliah under African Skies,” “Incredible India,” and “Tibet, on the Roof of the World.”   |
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The corona period brought that to an abrupt end Yet in that time, he produced the CD “Light.” Many soloists, including Claron McFadden, Sandhya Sanjana Mola Sylla, Hidde Roorda, Leo Sienot, Bright Hinze, Lucas van Merwijk, Peter van Deerse and Willem Wiche, collaborated on this for free. The proceeds were donated to the “Muziekbox” (Music Box, The Hague), a project for underprivileged children. From late April 2023, catch-up concerts were planned but which turned into a tour entitled “Chris Hinze presents: Crazy Young Men 2.0” and of which the CD “From Tibet to New York” was simultaneously released. You can find a complete discography of more than 80 of Chris Hinze’s CDs at www.chrishinze.nl.  |
Farewell concert &more… On November 5, 2023, Chris Hinze gave his farewell concert to a jubilant audience in a sold-out Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He may have stopped touring, but the music will never stop. He is going further with “singing bowl authority and sound phenomenon/therapist” Ton Akkermans, giving intimate, calming musical journeys. These are a combination of serene flute tones and penetrating meditative sounds of singing bowls, gongs, and bells. You can enjoy these concerts lying or sitting down while immersing yourself in the music. Content Ton Akkermans opens with a brief introduction to the intention of the world of the “Sound” and the “Magic” of the old Tibetan singing bowls and from there, to connect the “Silence” with the “Sound.” Flute and singing bowls are the ideal combination for such a concert. Concert duration, approx. 1 ¼ hours. Chris Hinze & Ton Akkermans “Sound&Silence” Comp. B   |
He also produced many other artists for Keytone records and CBS