Koen Kaptijn (1976-) completed his master's degree in December 2001 at the Conservatory of Rotterdam under George Wiegel, Jorgen van Rijen, Pierre Volders, Jilt Jansma and Bart van Lier. In 2000 he was awarded a scholarship to study for 3 months at the Conservatoire National Superieure de Musique in Lyon under Michel Becquet.
He has attended master classes with Christian Lindberg, Viktor Sumerkin, Maxim Ignatiev and Jonas Bylund. In 1998 he won the Erasmus Chamber Music prize as a member of a brass quintet. He also studied composition for 2 years under Peter-Jan Wagemans, René Uijlenhoed and Klaas de Vries.
Koen is highly involved in contemporary music. He is a member of Ensemble MAE in Amsterdam (formerly known as Maarten Altena Ensemble), Trio 7090 with pianist Nora Mulder and violinist Bas Wiegers, the New Trombone Collective in Rotterdam, the Clazz Ensemble in Rotterdam and the music theatre group Liefdes Zegepraal. He was principal trombonist in the Orchestra de Volharding from 1998 until 2009. He also works as a freelance trombonist on regular basis with other ensembles such as the Asko/Schönberg Ensemble, the Nieuw Ensemble and the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble. In 2006 he was involved as a soloist in the highly acclaimed music theatre group Orkater.
Koen composes both for individual soloists or ensembles. In 2008 his trio Roundelay was premiered by Trio 7090 and his 6 Monographs for flute, viola, harp and prerecorded ensemble will be premiered in 2009. In 2007 he premiered Trombone Song of Yannis Kyriakides in a revised version by himself.
In 2007 he began a course Modern Music Theatre together with Arlon Luijten at CODARTS in Rotterdam.