Henri Arends

Henri Arends (8 May 1921 – 6 August 1994) was a Dutch conductor.

Arends was born in Maastricht, and choirmaster of the Toonkunst-choir.

It was as first conductor and musical director of the North Holland Philharmonic that he attracted attention for his approach to a vast repertoire and for his efforts to attract new audiences to the concert hall. Among these successful enterprises was the formation of the famous "Heart's Desires Festivals", which were aimed at young people.

As guest conductor, Arends performed at many concerts in his country and abroad.

He conducted a.o. the radio-orchestras of Hilversum, Paris, Helsinki, Nice and Geneva; the FOK-orchestra of Prag, the Philharmonics of Brno, Ostrawa, Kraków, Lodz, Katowice, Danzig, Budapest, Innsbruck, Osnabrück, Aachen and the Salzburg Mozarteum orchestra. He also appeared with orchestras in South-Africa (Cape Town and Johannesburg) and with orchestras in the United States (New York and Baton Rouge). He died in Lanaken.

Publications Jozef Robijns, Miep Zijlstra: Algemene muziekencyclopedie, Haarlem: De Haan, (1979)-1984, John L. Holmes: Conductors on record, London: Victor Gollancz, 1982.