The Dutch recorder player Thomas Triesschijn maintains an active schedule as a soloist and chamber musician in various settings throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States. He is a favourite among audiences for his distinctive blend of virtuosity, musical energy, and charisma. Triesschijn’s playing is, in addition, characterized by its sweet and disarming tone, one that particularly complements his instrument, the flauto dolce. He draws inspiration from instruments from the 16th to 18th centuries, placing him in the tradition of historical performance practice embodied by pioneers such as Frans Brüggen and Gustav Leonhardt.
Triesschijn has shared the stage with ensembles and conductors such as the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Ton Koopman, Capriccio Stravagante and Skip Sempé, Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset, Holland Baroque, and Vox Luminis, among others. He is a welcome guest on international stages and festivals, from the Royal Palace in Versailles and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam to the Utrecht Early Music Festival and the Kölner Philharmonie.
Together with his chamber ensembles The Counterpoints and the Holborne Consort, Thomas Triesschijn has assembled dynamic concert programmes that frequently put the well-known recorder repertoire in dialogue with arrangements and works by lesser-known composers. His repertoire thus spans music from the early 16th century to the present.
Thomas Triesschijn has been featured on numerous radio and television programmes and counts several CD and DVD recordings to his name. His Telemann album La Querelleuse was awarded an Editor’s Choice by Gramophone Magazine. On Triesschijn’s most recent CD, Thomascantors in Dialogue, he appears as a soloist in four recorder concertos by the composers who applied for the position of Thomascantor in Leipzig in 1723.
After his first musical experiences as a chorister at the age of 6 together with his twin brother, Triesschijn began playing the recorder. Singing has nevertheless remained an important source of inspiration throughout his career. He studied at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague under Dorothea Winter and at the Utrecht Conservatory under Heiko ter Schegget. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including at the Princess Christina Competition and the Eurovision Young Musician’s Competition.
When he’s not playing himself, Thomas Triesschijn likes to share his passion for music and the recorder with masterclasses and teaching. He currently lives in Switzerland, where he teaches at the Musikschule Luzern and Hochschule Luzern – Musik.

The Counterpoints is an early music collective under the artistic direction of the founders recorder player Thomas Triesschijn and harpsichordist Aljosja Mietus. The Counterpoints found each other in a vibrant yet precise style of playing, and a huge enthusiasm for the chamber music repertoire and the period instruments from the 17th and 18th centuries. Throughout the years the ensemble grew to a base group of musicians that is regularly expanded to adapt to the repertoire they are playing. Their name, derived from the compositional technique of counterpoint, implies several voices that all play an equal part in the texture of a piece. Every voice has its individual character, but the whole is more than the sum of its parts. For The Counterpoints, playing together works in exactly the same way. They all get their chance to show their qualities and stand out, but give room to the others to do the same. As in counterpoint, the number of voices can vary.
In their approach on stage and in their recordings, storytelling is always a priority. On their 2019 debut CD La Querelleuse (awarded an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine), they used Telemann's quarrelsome love life as a metaphor for his ‘quarrels’ with musical styles. Their second CD Thomascantors in Dialogue imagines a dialogue between the four composers that in 1723 applied for the position of Thomascantor in Leipzig. Their latest album Italophilia tells the story of the lively cultural and musical exchange between Italy and the British Isles in the 17th and 18th centuries. With their expressive playing and well thought-out programmes, The Counterpoints have become an established group within the early music scene, and they have played at venues and festivals such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Utrecht Early Music Festival.