HERMANNUS (HERMAN) JANTINUS VAN VEEN, (March 14, 1945) plays the violin, sings, writes, composes, directs, paints and is an activist for the Rights of the Child.
Born in Utrecht, the Netherlands, he grew up as the only boy in a working-class family and studied violin, voice and music pedagogy at the Utrecht Conservatory.
He made his theatrical debut in 1965 with the musical, clownish, solo program, Harlequin. Since then he has traveled all over the world, performing in four languages. He was the creator of Alfred Jodocus Kwak, a courageous little duck from Waterland who became world-famous thanks to a 52 episode television series.
To date he has recorded 175 CDs, 21 DVDs, some seventy-odd books, scenarios for, among others, the feature-length films, Uit Elkaar (Break-up) and Nachtvlinder (Night Butterfly) and for the music theatre productions Jukebox, De Kamerrevue (The Room Revue), Lune, The First Lady (together with Lori Spee), Chanson de Daniël (Daniëls Song), Mata Hari, Windekind (Child of the Wind), Een Dag in September (A Day in September) and Juliette.
Since he was 17 years old he has been successively volunteer, governing board member and goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. He established several organizations among which are The Colombine Foundation, The Roses for Children Foundation and The Herman Van Veen Foundation. All of these organizations are committed to and ask attention for the Rights of the Child through knowledge sharing and small-scale projects in developing countries as well as in Europe.
Herman is holder of The Louis Davids Ring (Louis Davids was a legendary Dutch entertainer in the 1920s and 30s), which he received in 1976 from the late Wim Kan, an illustrious Dutch comedian and political commentator. In 1993, he was decorated by the Dutch Queen and made Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau. In 1999, because of his special contributions to German-Dutch relations, he received, on behalf of the President of the German Republic, The Verdienstkreuz am Bande des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, a Cross of Merit. In 2008, by royal decree, Herman was promoted to Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion. At the end of 2009, The Vrije Universiteit in Brussels granted Herman an Honorary Doctorate as symbol of appreciation for his international career and social commitment.
He received a Golden Camera (for Alfred Jodocus Kwak), a Silver Bear (Berlin Film Festival), nine Edisons (the Dutch equivalent of the Grammy), the 2002 Radio 2 National Air Play Award, the Prix d’Humanité, Le Prix Charles Cros for Literary Music 2003 for his theatre show and CD Chapeau, Le Prix de l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie 2003 for his CD Chapeau and several awards at The International tv and Film Festival in New York. On March 14, 2010 Herman received the Edison Collected Work Award for his vast body of work and outstanding contributions to Dutch music.
In 2004, he was presented with the World Peace Flame, symbolizing peace, freedom, unity and truth and inspired by the eternal flame, which burns in the house of Mahatma Gandhi. In 2005, The Club of Budapest awarded him The Planetary Consciousness Award, an award previously bestowed upon Michael Gorbachev and Nelson Mandela. In that same year he also received, from Sabine Christiansen, the Martin Buber Commemorative Plaque 2005 for the respectful and loving manner in which he is involved with his fellow man. This award, established in 2002, was first presented to former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and in 2007 to human rights activist and top model Waris Dirie.
After the death of his parents he began to paint. His work is often abstract and monochrome and can now be seen in a number of European galleries and museums. In February of 2008, a Dutch postage stamp of him was released,
a milestone marking – as he put it – the halfway point in his life.