About
Robert Koolstra started his studies at the Prins Claus Conservatorium in Groningen (NL) with Jacques Ogg, Johan Hofmann and Theo Jellema. Hereafter he specialized further in Early Music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London (GB) with Carole Cerasi.
He is the continuo player in various ensembles, and has performed in Europe, Asia and North America.
As a soloist he gives recitals on both the organ and the harpsichord, and in this capacity his work was recorded on radio and television.
At present, he is the artistic advisor to, and continuo player of, the baroque orchestra of the Groningen-based Luthers Bach Ensemble.
He worked with musicians and conductors such as Jos van Veldhoven, Ton Koopman, Rachel Podger, Peter Dijkstra.
In 2008 and 2009 Koolstra was head of the Classical Music Department in the Conservatory of Chennai (India) where he was invited by the twice Oscar winner A. R. Rahman. He taught major courses there, and subsequently taught in Montreal (Canada), where he was active as a chamber musician.
In 2017 he published a new reconstruction of Bach’s lost Mark Passion (1744), this version is performed worldwide. (The Netherlands, Hongkong, The United States, Canada)
The score and parts are available via the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP).
In 2018 he founded the Meerbach foundation, which is committed to promoting the musical instrument harpsichord and early music. He is currently working on a concert series in which all of Bach's harpsichord works are performed in small churches in the countryside.
With this foundation he has organized many special harpsichord projects in recent years, such as the Bach concertos for 1 & 2 harpsichords as well as the concertos for 3 & 4 harpsichords and the complete Pièces de clavecin en concerts by Rameau and all of the obligato works by Telemann.
