Henk (97) has been composing for 83 years, but no one has ever played his music

For 97-year-old Henk van der Vliet from Roosendaal, music is not a luxury or a hobby. It’s his oxygen. “Without music I would be an unhappy person,” he says as his fingers gently slide over the keys of his electronic piano. Henk is probably the oldest living composer in the Netherlands and still has one fervent wish. He hopes that one of his pieces of music will be performed professionally.

Henk is small in stature, but as soon as he starts playing his presence changes. The room seems to gather around him. Sounds flow from his hands as if they still know what to do, even though his fingers sometimes have to search for a while.

“It’s all going a bit slower,” says Henk matter-of-factly. “But as long as I can still play, I’m happy.”

That simplicity is typical of Henk. He has been composing almost since time immemorial. “From the age of fourteen, so that started 83 years ago,” he says with a smile. “I wrote my first work for three accordions after a summer course. There I was taught by someone who was really skilled and then a world opened up for me.”

He has never left that world since. Henk has now written 162 compositions, from small pieces to an evening-filling opera: De Tol. That opera is Henks’ pride, it is his life’s work. But ‘De Tol’ never reached the general public.

Because to Henks’ sadness, none of his pieces have ever been professionally performed. No orchestra, ensemble or musical company has ever played a note of it. And that hurts a little. “You have to have a name in this world,” says Henk. “And money. Otherwise it will be very difficult to perform your music in a big way.”

But the wish remains. “You don’t compose for yourself,” the 97-year-old composer explains. “You want people to hear it. That’s why it would be great if my opera was performed somewhere by professional musicians. Or even part of it. That’s what I really hope for before I’m no longer there.”

It is this wish for which he still sits behind the piano every day. Not out of habit, but out of love and expectation. “I’m addicted to music,” he explains. “Without music I would be a very unhappy man.”

Henk continues: “The fingers are sometimes stubborn and concentration crumbles. But I still play two hours a day. I can’t keep it up for longer. But that’s the case with everyone my age. I still enjoy it a lot, even though it’s no longer the way it used to be.”

Although Bach is his favorite composer, Henk plays a piece by Beethoven. But after Für Elise he still wants to finish with his own work. “I would have preferred someone else to play it,” he concludes when the last note has been played. “If that happens again, my life will come full circle.”