Christiaan Kriens
Christiaan Pieter Wilhelm Kriens was an American composer, pianist, violinist and conductor of Dutch parentage.
He was born in Germany while his father, clarinetist Christiaan Pieter Willem Kriens, was playing with the Sächsiches Staatskapelle in Dresden during the 1880/1881 season. he came to the United States in 1906. He wrote a number of pieces for orchestra, including two symphonies ; he also composed songs and some chamber music, including a string quartet.
He received his education form his father and at the Haagse Muziekschool. When he was fourteen he gave a concert with the orchestra led by his father, during which he was the violin soloist in the Violin Concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven, and the pianist the Piano Cocerto No. 5 by the same composer and led his own second symphony as a conductor. He became solo violinist in the Haarlemse Orkest Vereeniging before joining orchestras in France and the United States. He ran an orchestra school in Carnegie Hall and a string quartet.
In November, 1910 Musical America published an interview with Kriens with the headline: "No Wealth, No Friends, No Influence, Yet Optimistic"
He became musical director of WTIC, a radio station with choir and orchestra, in West Hartford, Connecticut. When he was fired he took his own life.
