Jacob van Kempen

Jacob van Kempen always appeared on playbills as Jac. van Kempen, which has often led to the erroneous assumption that his first name was Jacques. He studied voice with Cornélie van Zanten, following her from Amsterdam to Berlin. Several German opera theaters wanted to hire him, but he chose to be a concert tenor, specializing in oratorio. He sang 50 concerts per year, mostly but not exclusively in the Netherlands, and regularly with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. He was also part of two mixed quartets, the Zalsmankwartet (whose leader was bass-baritone Gerard Zalsman) and the Amsterdamsch Kwartet.

In 1928, he sang in the Dutch premiere of Oedipus rex at the Concertgebouw, under Stravinsky's own baton.

Van Kempen left a handful of records, both solo and with the Amsterdamsch Kwartet.

Reference 1 and picture source; reference 2