From one place to the next - born in South Africa, raised in Australia and now living in Germany,  Dennis van Rooyen has been a wanderer his whole life. Dennis plays guitar because it is the perfect instrument for wandering. He explores music ranging from the ancient to the experimental, to play on classical and electric guitars. Dennis’ repertoire includes the guitar canon, minimalism, new music, renaissance intabulation, English choral music, and free improvisation. 

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Dennis has performed recently at The Church, Sydney (solo), Princess Galyani Institute of Music, Bangkok, and Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, Singapore, for Fausto Romitelli’s mono-opera An Index of Metals, led by Peter Veale, and Musikhochschule Lübeck, for the premiere of Bernd Redmann’s Danses Rituelles.  He also performed at the 2025 METRIC Symposium at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki and the Next Generation_X Symposium at ZKM, Karlsruhe.

 

Dennis has recorded and debuted solo guitar music by Malaysian composer Tazul Tajuddin and Melbourne composer David William Murray.​​ He has performed Rodrigo's Concierto De Aranjuez with the St George Chamber Orchestra, and has performed with the Sydney Symphony Fellows and Sydney Youth Orchestra. Dennis plays a classical guitar by Woodburn luthier Simon Marty.

 

He is currently completing a Masters of Guitar at the Musikhochschule Lübeck, with Professors Otto Tolonen and Nicola Hein. 

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Dennis van Rooyen decided to be become a musician because he found that music is the most intense form of experiencing reality. To have existence condensed into a little life, that lives and dies through his playing, is what inspires Dennis most of all. 

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