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The Dutch tenor, Gerben Houba, studied at the Wagenings Lyceum in Wageningen-Hoog, Gelderland, (1982-1990). He has been a singer all his life. At age 17, his music teacher at secondary school Cees Mobach inspired him to take singing lessons. His present coaches are Marcel Reijans and Paul Triepels and before that his singing teacher was Geert Berghs. He attended master-classes by Margreet Honig and Kurt Equiluz and was given acting lessons by Maarten Vonk. In 2010 he received the Honorary Award for Outstanding Musicianship at the Peter de Grote festival, Groningen.
As a concert soloist Gerben Houba debuted in 2007 in the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with a work of Helmut Barbe. Furthermore he sang Igor Stravinsky's Cantata and The Voynich Cyphermanuscript of Hanz-Peter Kyburz. He performed the latter piece in the Main Hall of Cite the la Musique in Paris. Moreover, besides in more present-day music, he can also be heard as a soloist in traditional oratories of composers as W.A. Mozart, George Frideric Handel and J.S. Bach. Next to many arias of J.S. Bach, he also sings the part of the evangelist in the Johannes-Passion (BWV 245) and Mattheus-Passion BWV 244). In the field of opera he was a soloist in several productions, such as the title part in Orfeo of Monteverdi, in Thyeste of Jan van Vlijmen and in 2009 he sang the title part in Dichtertje, a new composed opera of Harke-Jan van der Meulen, after an equally titled novel of Nescio.
Gerben Houba is also a member and co-founder (2006) of vocal quartet Quatre Bouches. Furthermore, he is connected as a remplaçant to the Groot Omroepkoor (Netherlands Radio Choir) since 2006, and was a member of the permanent cast of Cappella Amsterdam (Director: Daniel Reuss) from 1996 to 2010, and a member of the VocaalLAB Nederland from 2009 to 2012.
Gerben Houba also studied Economics at Universiteit van Amsterdam (1990-1996), and obtained EFFAS diploma as Financial Analyst from European Federation of Financial Analysts societies (1998-2001). He worked as Asset administrator at Wijs & van Oostveen (1996-2003). He currently lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands |
