Raymond Honing

Raymond Honing belongs to a new generation of musicians who dedicates his musical energy to both early and contemporary music. After obtaining three grades at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, i.e. modern flute, baroque flute, and chamber music, he started to develop an interesting career with a repertoire covering three centuries of musical history. From Baroque on the one key flute, and early romantic music on the 8 key flutes to contemporary music on the modern Boehm flute including alto and bass. Whatever the repertoire is, the main reason to play this music is always first place, curiosity. Curiosity about what was going on in the mind of the composer whether he is still alive or already dead for two hundred years. And curiosity about what this music will do to the audience.

Winning a second prize at the National Flute Competition as a young boy, some years later he won several prizes at chamber music competitions like the "wettbewerb für Junge Kultur" Düsseldorf and the van Wassenaer Competition. Raymond is the principal flutist in the Rotterdam-based chamber orchestra Sinfonia Rotterdam and also played in orchestras and ensembles like Nieuw Ensemble, Asko-Schönberg Ensemble, Anima Eterna, Musikfabrik and Combattimento Consort. In 2007 he founded his own baroque ensemble La Barca Leyden with which he developed very special projects like for example one on microtonality in early music. With La Barca Leyden Raymond surprised the press and audience with unconducted performances of Bach's St. John and Matthew passions with single instruments and voices. Until now he released three CDs with La Barca Leyden. The latest CD "music at the court of Jülich-Berg" was awarded the Golden Label 2012. Next to his activities in the field of early music, Raymond is an energetic promoter of contemporary music. Many composers dedicated work to him and he premiered several concertos for flute and orchestra like the concertos by the Dutch composer Robin de Raaff and Korean composer Uzong Choe. Raymond is a member of Ensemble Scala, a unique ensemble specializing in microtonal music.

As a soloist he also performed concertos from J.S. Bach, C.PH.E. Bach, Vivaldi , Mozart, Haydn and Mercadante. Raymond is always trying to find collaboration with other disciplines. He worked with actors, dancers, and for instance Argentinian Tango pianist Pablo Ziegler. Next to numerous concerts in The Netherlands, he performs on stages and at festivals in France, Belgium, Germany, Czechia, Russia, Hungry, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Finland, China, Brazil, and Colombia.

Since 2008 Raymond is also active as a conductor. He teaches flute methods at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Being interested in multi-disciplines and art forms, in 2018 Raymond created his first music-theatre performance ZWEER. At the moment he is working on his second one called DOOF.