Marlies van Gangelen was born in 1988 in the Netherlands. After falling in love with the sound of the oboe she started at an age of eight taking oboe lessons at the local music school in Vleuten. In 2003 she was accepted to the Academy of Musical Talent and granted with their scholarship for three years to support her musical talents. In this Academy of Musical Talent she received lessons from the oboe soloist and pedagogue Ernest Rombout, moreover, with the academy she gave concerts through all of the Netherlands and in 2005 a special concert for the Dutch queen.
After one year of studying at the Conservatory of Utrecht she continued in 2007 her lessons at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Ernest Rombout, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Music in 2011. In 2011 she studied for one year in Rotterdam with Aisling Casey and Maarten Dekkers. Currently Marlies is studying The Leadership Pathway of the Guildhall Artist Masters Programme in London. During her studies, Marlies received Master classes from Heinz Holliger, Thomas Indermühle, Alexei Ogrintchouk, Lucas Macias Navaro.
While at the conservatory, Marlies played in several ensembles and orchestras. For three years, she was the principal oboist of the Dutch National Youth Wind Orchestra with whom she went in 2007 on tour to Latvia. Playing with the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands, she toured along all the major concert halls of the Netherlands and Belgium 2009. The same year she went on tour with the Sweelinck Student Orchestra to China and performed several concerts in and around Shanghai. Later in 2009 she went to Thailand and played with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and performed with the wind quintet “Zephyros Ensemble” at the Gergiev Festival, Rotterdam. From 2010 to 2012 she was the appointed oboist to the Young Dutch Wind Ensemble. This international engagement continued in April 2012, when she went to Jordan with the project “Jabel Music” of the Dutch composer and music projects organizer Merlijn Twaalfhoven. With the Jabel Music group, Marlies played with a variety of local Arabic musicians and gave music workshops to Palestinian Refugees. In August the same year, she went on tour to Libanon and played with members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. As a freelancer, she is frequently invited to play with internationally recognized orchestras, such as Amsterdams Bach Consort and l’Orchestra Particolare.
While playing with orchestras and ensembles she distinguished herself as a soloist, starting in 2009 when she performed the Variations of N. Rimski-Korsakov with the Youth Project Orchestra. As the oboist of the Young Dutch Wind Ensemble she gave challenging concerts in all the major halls and festivals in the Netherlands. With this ensemble Marlies performed around ten concerts solo the works Oblivion of A. Piazolla and Gabriel’s Oboe of E. Morricone.
Two important Dutch composers wrote a specially commissioned composition for Marlies. The well-known viola player and composer Maurice Horsthuis wrote the piece Korte Metten for oboe, electric guitar and drums. After the premiere at her Bachelor final exam she performed this piece many more times including a concert in the Grachtenfestival 2011. Chiel Meijering wrote an oboe concerto for Marlies and the Camber Orchestra Lundi Bleu. The premiere was in December 2012 in Amsterdam, followed by a tour around several concert halls and festivals.
Apart from concentrating on classical music, Marlies collaborated with artists of a variety of disciplines. In 2012 she worked with the artists Collective the Waterlanders, improvising to underline the atmosphere of historical buildings and accompany choreography. This performance was played several times during the Dutch Festival on de Bres. Further, she collaborated with projects of Rood|Noot and played on the album of award-winning singer- songwriter Lucky Fonz III.
Since her studies in London September 2012 she collaborated with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Matthew Herbert and the Ethiopian singer Haymanot Tesfa.
Marlies was involved in several community projects. One of them is the Learning Orchestra: inspired by the similar Venezuelan project El Sistema, gives children at schools in immigrant neighborhoods the opportunity to learn to play musical instruments. Over the time of four years, Marlies gave twenty-two 8 to 12-years old children oboe lessons in groups during primary school time. For another project – Memorable Momenten, she performed from 2008 till 2009 many times in self-produced theatrical and musical programmes in day care centres for toddlers. She also organized and played several self-produced music programmes in residences for the elderly.
Marlies receives Scholarships from VSB fonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Fonds Podiumkunsten and a Guildhall Scholarship for her study in London.