Johan Wagenaar

Affiliations: 
Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands 
Google:
"Johan Wagenaar"
Bio:

Born in Utrecht, out of wedlock, he was the son of Cypriaan Gerard Berger van Hengst and Johanna Wagenaar. Wagenaar's parents were of different social strata: his father was an aristocrat, while his mother was of more humble origins.[1] For this reason, Wagenaar's parents were not married, and thus Wagenaar received his mother's name as his family name. While Wagenaar resented that his parents never got married, he was by no means neglected by his father.[2]

Wagenaar evidenced a talent for music as a child. However, he did not begin to receive a formal education in music until age 13, with subsequent instruction in piano, organ, violin, theory, and composition. He was under the tutelage of the composer Richard Hol and the organist Samuel de Lange, Jr. In 1892, he studied with Brahms' friend Heinrich von Herzogenberg in Berlin, specifically taking lessons in counterpoint.