about Jan Peter van der Wenden photo by Mia van Schravendijk

Jan Peter van der Wenden was born (22nd July 1968) and raised in The Hague, The Netherlands (Holland). His father was an art teacher. He followed the Montessori pre-school kindergarten and elementary school and the experimental Yamaha organ/music lessons for children. He played (to no purpose) the clarinet, the horn and the bass guitar. At the municipal grammar school he made scenery for the musicals with art teacher Frans van der Steen. In 1987 he started with computer music using a (borrowed) Yamaha MSX computer with MIDI, a drum computer and a synthesizer. After grammar school he started to study in Art History at the University of Leiden. Almost one year later he had to discontinue this study to join the military service. After the military service he did unavailingly entrance examination for the studies of Image and Media Technology in Utrecht and Video Design in The Hague finding the Art History too theoretical. In October 1992 he started to work as a volunteer for the cultural editorial staff of the local television station. There he learned to use the video camera, light, sound and editing controller. He build props for several discotheques, some of them reacting to sound. In 1995 he started to study at the Interfaculty of Image and Sound of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts/ Royal Conservatory in The Hague from which he graduated in 1998. From then he worked - next to his own work - for Theatergroep Hollandia (currently Zuidelijk Toneel/ Hollandia), the Sonic Acts Festival in Amsterdam (as a member of the editorial staff), the Polyvinyl Big Band (as a VJ) and for the Interfaculty Image and Sound of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts/ Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 2001 he started the Masters course Media Technology at Leiden University, from which he graduated in 2003.