Johannes Schenck

Johannes Schenck (or Johan Schenk, 3 June 1660–after 1712) was a Dutch musician and composer.

Schenck was born in Amsterdam and baptized in a Catholic hidden church. He became a renowned virtuoso viola da gamba player.

His compositions included music for a Dutch Singspiel, Bacchus, Ceres en Venus, which can claim to be the first opera in Dutch, and from which songs were published in 1687, as well as works for the viola da gamba. Around 1696 he accepted an appointment to the court of Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine in Düsseldorf. After Johann Wilhelm’s death in 1716, the electoral court moved to Mannheim.

There is some uncertainty about the date of Schenck’s death as there is no mention found in the Düsseldorf Protestant church records or parish and cemetery records in Amsterdam. His last known published work appeared in 1712. He is no longer mentioned in the list of court musicians compiled in 1717.

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