Hennie Bekker

Hennie Bekker is an award-winning, multi-platinum-selling musician, master composer and arranger whose international career spans decades, cultures, generations and genres. Bekker is best known for his New Age sound on Dan Gibson’s Solitudes – Exploring Nature with Music series, and his own Kaleidoscopes, African Tapestries, and Hennie Bekker’s Tranquility album series. He was also the creative force behind BKS, one of Canada’s most successful techno/dance bands. Bekker was raised in Mufulira, a Zambian copper mining town 10 miles south of the Congo border. His young spirit was captivated by the symphonic sounds of the African wilderness, the haunting harmonies of tribal chanting, and the rhythmic dialogue of drummers communicating between mining camps at sundown. Bekker began playing music at a very young age and spent eight years performing with various bands throughout Zambia, South Africa, Congo and Zimbabwe, finally settling in Johannesburg, South Africa. There he formed several bands bearing his name, and his success as a musician and bandleader elevated him to become a musical director for Gallo Record Company, and later for Teal (a Polygram company). Bekker went on to produce and arrange countless works for many well-known South African artists. He also released a handful of solo albums on various labels including His Master’s Voice, EMI, and Gallo. Having successfully established himself in South Africa’s flourishing music industry, Bekker, looking for new challenges, took his skills to England to further explore his thriving musical career. There, along with producer Emil Zoghby, Bekker arranged, conducted and co-produced albums for such notable artists as Freddie Cole, Magna Carta and legendary British pianist Stanley Black. In 1980 Bekker returned to South Africa, adding film scores, music for television, radio and hundreds of commercials to his discography. In 1987, Bekker immigrated to Canada. His work eventually led him to Solitudes™, where he composed and recorded ambient melodies to compliment Dan Gibson’s nature sounds. Bekker and Gibson collaborated on the first fourteen Solitudes – Exploring Nature With Music albums, many of which have since sold gold, platinum, double and triple platinum volumes. Having established himself as a top Environmental / New Age composer, Bekker went on to compose, arrange and produce several solo series of soothing, meditative, nature-inspired albums. In his Kaleidoscopes and Tranquility series, he applied his signature style to original songs, capturing the essence of moods, memories and seasons, and incorporated his unique interpretations of familiar classics, carols and lullabies on various albums. Bekker’s renowned African Tapestries series pays homage to his homeland and is a masterful fusion of New Age and World music interwoven with the diverse sounds of the African wilderness. In 2011 Bekker released Spectrum – An Anthology of Relaxing Instrumental Music, an epic compilation encompassing some of his most significant instrumental works. The album featured fourteen tracks from eleven of Bekker’s previous releases. During the international radio and media campaign that followed, Spectrum was added by over 160 terrestrial and internet radio stations, as well as major streaming services, and topped the Zone Music Reporter (ZMR) airplay chart, debuting at #3 in September 2011 and moving to #1 two months later. The album remained in the Top 10 for five months. Bekker was heralded as a ‘true master’ by key New Age music reviewers and journalists. The overwhelming response to the release was an indication of the recognition of Bekker as one of the world’s top New Age artists. Spectrum – An Anthology of Relaxing Instrumental Music went on to win two categories in the ZMR 2011 Music Awards, namely “Best Contemporary Instrumental Album” and “Best Electronic Album”. The album was also a finalist in the 2012 COVR awards for “Best New Age Album”, and was voted one of the best New Age albums of 2011 by NewAgeMusicWorld.com. In May 2012, Bekker performed alongside Grammy®-winning artists at the first ZMR Music Awards show in New Orleans. Bekker’s impressive discography encompasses over sixty albums and over a thousand works he has either composed or arranged, or to which he has contributed his musical genius. He is a master of musical technology, using the full resources of his state-of-the-art studio to blend, stretch, layer and enhance his core sounds. Bekker is a prolific professional who is constantly creating, exploring and recording auditory portraits that captivate a wide audience. Be it a solo or collaborative effort, an original or interpretive piece, a conventional or inventive track, Bekker’s artistry will continue to inspire worldwide.