Biography Rieteke Hölscher

Rieteke Hölscher (1969) is a Dutch composer and pianist. She studied piano both classical and jazz with Frans van Dalen, Tine Schneider and Rian the Waal. After her graduation (1992) at the Hilversum Conservatory she developed herself as an all-round musician – performer, teacher, conductor and church musician.

It was in 2011 that she decided to give in to her long-cherished desire by taking composition lessons. This resulted in a study composition at the Utrecht Conservatory with Caroline Ansink and Jeroen D´hoe in 2013 where she received her master degree in 2016. During this master she also followed jazz-piano with Bert van den Brink and organ with Reitze Smits.

As a composer, Hölscher is constantly exploring new connections, often bringing contemporary music into dialogue with education and other art forms. Her works include ‘Il Cibo per La Musica’, created for the Bloembollenstreek Youth Orchestra in 2018; ‘Disturbing Light’ (2019), combining tape, live music, and video art; and ‘Keystones’ (2021), written for dance and small ensemble. The latter was performed by her own group, Ensemble Cross Meeting, of which she is also a member and pianist.

In her compositions Hölscher aims to achieve an unique sound with great accessibility, with the ideal to bridge the gap between music history, contemporary music and the audience. Her colorful music is best described as straight and emotional with lyrical melodic lines, attention for timbre and an original use of extended techniques. Rieteke has also a strong commitment to both audience and performers without making creative concessions.

Hölscher was nominated in 2012 for the Composition Prize of Muziek Centrum Nederland and was in 2015 also a laureate of Save the Bassoon (a contest in cooperation with Bram van Sambeek, Gaudeamus and Grachtenfestival Amsterdam). Her sketch for Robot Toy Piano was selected for the Gaudeamus Muziekweek in Utrecht in September and premiered in December 2017 during the Uncaged Toy Piano Festival in New York. In late 2025, she received a development grant from the Performing Arts Fund NL for compositional research into formal structures and tension arcs in vocal music. This resulted in the new choral work Tales of a Pilgrimage. Additionally, in the summer of 2026, she was Artist-In-Residence at Atelier Simeon ten Holt, where she composed a new piano piece and further developed her practice as a composer.

Hölschers compositions were performed by established musicians like the Netherlands Radio Choir, Beijing Philharmonic Choir, Kamerkoor Next, pianist Marcel Worms, horn player José Sogorb Jover, Utrechtse Studenten Cantorij, bassoonist Bram van Sambeek, and her own ensemble Cross Meeting. Her oeuvre includes solo repertoire and chamber music as well as a pianoconcerto for youth orchestra and is published by Donemus Publishing.