Anton Tierie
Anton Tierie, full name Anthonie Hildebrand Tierie, was a Dutch organist, conductor and composer. He was born in Wageningen on 4 April 1870, the son of the organist Jan Frederik Tierie Sr. and Jenny Louise Plantenga.
His first lessons came from his father. He then studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Jean-Baptiste de Pauw, Daniël de Lange, Frans Coenen and Louis Coenen. From 1902 he also pursued music-dramatic studies in Darmstadt with Willem de Haan.
Tierie worked as an organist in Hilversum and conducted Kunst en Broederschap in Amsterdam and the Mixed Choir of Haarlem. He became choir conductor of the Free Congregation in Amsterdam, taught at the music school of the Society for the Promotion of Music and at the conservatory, and conducted Euterpe, the Society for the Promotion of Music Choirs in Alkmaar and Leiden, and Excelsior in The Hague.
In 1898, with Willem Stumpff and J. A. van der Broecke, he founded the Christian Oratorio Association Excelsior. Its concerts were first given at the Arena, later at the Palace for Popular Industry, and subsequently at the Concertgebouw. Between 1898 and 1934 Tierie conducted its choir and orchestra at least 110 times, and was made an honorary member in 1910, at its twelfth-and-a-half-year anniversary. After returning from Darmstadt, he led opera performances under Désiré Pauwels, Jos Orelio and Cornelis van der Linden.
He also appeared in the Netherlands and abroad as an organist, pianist and conductor of his choirs. His compositions consist chiefly of songs for solo voice or choir. He was appointed a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau and a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
Tierie was married to Aafje de Lange, a pianist and violinist trained at the Amsterdam Conservatory, from 1894 to 1921. In 1925 he married Regina Leonie Virginie Versteegh. He gradually withdrew from public life and lived in Rijssen from 1936 until 1938. After three months of treatment at the Diaconess Hospital on Overtoom in Amsterdam, he died there on 10 February 1938.
He was buried at Zorgvlied on 12 March 1938. A memorial designed by the sculptor Gerrit Bolhuis, a column inscribed “Anton H. Tierie, musician, 1870–1938” and topped by a bird, was unveiled on 29 October 1938. He had previously been portrayed by Daan Hoeksema and Bernard van Vlijmen.