Annette Kruisbrink

Composer, performer and teacher

The Dutch guitarist and composer Annette Kruisbrink studied the guitar with Pieter van der Staak and attended masterclasses conducted by Leo Brouwer, John Duarte, Toyohiko Satoh and others. She attended also composition classes run by Alex Manassen, Nigel Osborne, Claudio Prieto.

Annette Kruisbrink performs regularly as a guitarist and as a teacher at home, in the Netherlands, and abroad. With the Belgian guitarist Arlette Ruelens she forms The Anido Guitar Duo, and with the Dutch soprano Franka van Essen she forms the Duo Kruisbrink & Van Essen. She is also member of the The Naildance Guitar Quartet.

She currently teaches guitar at The Anido Guitar School in Emmeloord as well as contemporary music and ethno music at the Conservatory of Music in Zwolle.

Already at an early age Annette Kruisbrink was interested in composing, which has resulted in producing over 200 compositions. For many of them she was distinguished, e.g. 1st prize (audience award) for “Sgraffito” for chamber orchestra during the 7th International Congress on Women in Music in Utrecht, the Netherlands, 1991; 2nd prize for “Faon” for solo guitar in a competition for composition organized by SACEM and CMAC in Fort de France, Martinique (France), 1992; 1st prize ex aequo for “Homenaje a Andrés Segovia” for solo guitar in a competition for composition in Fort de France, Martinique (France), 1994; 2nd prize for “10 Miniatures” for guitar quartet in the 2º Concorso Internazionale di Composizione per Chitarra Classica ‘Michele Pittaluga’, Italy, 1998. Among her works receiving nominations are “Xenium” for solo guitar (1988), “Epitaphe sur ma pierre tombale” for 2 guitars, flute, voice (1991), “Cultune” for flute, guitar and electric bass (1992), “A Heidelberg Jingle” for guitar and double bass (1996).

ANNETTE KRUISBRINK