Claudius de Krentenkoning

The music and poetry history of Claudius de Krentenkoning starts with modern dance.
Claudio Rietveld was born on January 16th in 1985, in Surinam, South America. In 1986 he travelled to Europe accompanied by two older brothers and one sister, to live in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

At age 20 he became a member of Theatre Company ‘020’ in Amsterdam.
This youth theatre company used to offer a project called ‘Short Works’, to young people with an ambition to create their own choreographies. All students received individual coaching from choreographer Maxi Hill, a dancer from Jamaica who studied the modern dance ‘La Ban’ technique in London. While Rietveld was working on his first theatre productions, and getting a large variety of musical/choreography assignments, he found new ways of interpreting music and rhythm. By approaching rhythm and music in these ways Rietveld became inspired to make music.

In 2008 he got the honor of creating a solo performance. For the production of the play he bought a saxophone, and taught himself how to play. The solo piece got the name ‘Kinder Cola’, literally translated ‘Coke for Kids’. In this theatre play he tells the story of an anonymous jazz musician addicted to heroin. Rietveld challenges himself to make use of several disciplines; dance, spoken word and playing sax. After the première of ‘Coke for Kids’ and a tour across the Netherlands, Claudio’s focus on dance weakens of but his focus on music and writing increases.

After a few poetry performances he got invited by Poetry Circle Nowhere, a collective of young Dutch poets. The Circle contains 10 very talented writers and performers of which Claudius is one. The collective participated in the 2010 Contact Theatre Festival in Manchester, where companies from across the globe are brought together to collaborate.

Rietveld studies at the Albeda College, at the Musician/Producer faculty, where he studies different genres of modern music and the aspects of commercial music.

Since 2009 Rietveld has been asked several times to write and play in final-exam productions of University students.

In July 2010 he was sent to South-Africa, Cape Town, as the ambassador of Poetry Circle Nowhere. For a collaboration with singer/songwriter, poet and motivational speaker named Quintin ‘Jitsvinger’ Goliath.

In 2012 Rietveld will graduate with a debut album. At the moment he is working hard to create music, write and record songs. His biggest dream is to produce an album for M.I.A.. From this point on he is taking all the steps needed to take him there.