Renowned Kur Composer Cees Slings Passed Away

Dressage

The Netherlands

Cees Slings, a renowned Dutch musician and Kur composer, arranger and producer, has passed away on 14 October 2025 after a short period of illness. He was 73 years old.

TV and Radio Work

Born 6 July 1952 in Velsen, The Netherlands, Slings began his career composing music for international TV-drama series, comedies, wildlife films, documentaries and commercials. They operated mainly in The Netherlands and Germany.

In the 1980s and 1990s he made music for TV-shows such as Medisch Centrum West, Stadtklinik, die Wache, Ungelöste Geheimnisse, Foreign Affairs, de Dageraad, and Barst.

Slings & Kerkhof

Cees Slings and Anky van Grunsven's success as "Queen of the Kur" go hand in hand. Together with musical business partner Victor Kerkhof, Slings made a cold call to Anky van Grunsven brazenly telling her that her freestyle music can be much better and they would do that for her.

Anky collaborated with Slings & Kerkhof from 1995 till 2004 and were responsible for all her magical and memorable freestyle. They composed "Bonfire Symphony" (Olympic Silver Atlanta 1996), "Something Old, Something New" (Olympic Gold Sydney 2000), and "L’Esprit Chanson" (Olympic Gold Athens 2004). Anky rode more horses to their musical productions. The Tango freestyle (Partout, Krack C), the James Bond Kur, and a West Side Story freestyle were equally famous.

Their freestyles stood miles apart from other productions as they were tailored to the footfall of the horse, a key trait many other composers failed to achieve. They included Anky's own signing

They were invited to explain the secret to their success at the 2005 Global Dressage Forum, held in Ankum.

Slings Music Cast

In 2005 Slings and Kerkhof ended their exclusivity with Anky van Grunsven and the pair began composing for new clients. They composed the opening and closing ceremony music for the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen.

In 2006 Slings and Kerkhof went their separate ways. Victor Kerkhof composed one more big freestyle for Adelinde Cornelissen, while Slings stayed more involved in the dressage world and continued to be very productive.

Amongst his top medal winning and brain imprinting freestyles are Laura Bechtolsheimer's "The Shadows" Kur (Mistral Hojris), Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein's Dansez Maintenant kur (Digby), Matthias Rath's 1001 Nights (Sterntaler), Marlies van Baalen's Sinatra kur (Kigali).

An absolute hit was the Kur Slings" composed for Sönke Rothenberger's Cosmo, which had the crowd on their feet at the 2017 European Championships in Gothenburg.

Cees' most loyal client was Tinne Vilhelmson-Silfven's who had four freestyles designed by the Dutchman: It's Broadway, Who's Anton, Good Vibrations and Putting on a Ritz. Tinne still rides to this evergreen music today. Slings also wanted to be involved in the design of the floorplan and choreography of a kur. Together with Tinne he came up with the element of the walk, piaffe turn, walk - a trick in the floorplan often copied to date.

Trailblazer

Slings was a musical cameleon with an incredible forward thinking vision. He made freestyles and convinced his clients to have dedicated websites made for the promotion of the freestyle. He was one of the first to attach a GoPro to a dressage rider and let the audience experience what it feels like to ride a Grand Prix freestyle. Client Tinne Vilhelmson did so with Favourit.

The duo was ahead of its time and released a very professional DVD called "Anky's Music - From Atlanta to Athens".

They were also trailblazers by selling iPods with their music when Apple had just come out with their revolutionary device in 2009. Through Eurodressage, Cees Slings offered these iPods for sale with a personalized engravement on the back of the device.

In 2022, Slings celebrated his 70th birthday by releasing his 16 favourite dressage Freestyles that he composed and produced in the past 16 years. They were released on Spotify and iTunes.

EQ Musync

In 2010 (!) Slings designed a software programme, EQ Musync, which generates an objective analysis of the horse's movements to the music.

Slings tried to promote his EQ-M concept to the FEI and worked tirelessly to get a foot in the door as the system could be helpful to more objective judging of the freestyle and assist the then up and coming concept of the Degree of Difficulty (as well as now AI-assisted judging), but he always met with a door closed in front of his face.

He was too "avant la Lettre" and Slings lost his confidence in the FEI and the judging system for its inability to search for progress and look at a more objective way of judging. Nowadays parts of his EQ Musync ideas have been implemented by the FEI, monetised by other other players.

Avonturen op het Zesspan

Slings' last major production in his life was a comic book with music called "Avonturen op het Zesspan - De Droompony" launched on 22 October 2022.

Het Zesspan is a famous Dutch children’s riding school, where all of the Shetland ponies are red and white. About 800 children from a widespread region enjoy their weekly moment of fun at the Zesspan premises. The comic book is illustrated by Holland’s best children’s book illustrator Melanie Broekhoven and Cees composed 10 original songs about ponies and pony riding.

A Creative Mind Gone

Cees told Eurodressage that his all-time favourite freestyle was the one he composed for Victor Alvarez (EP) titled "Guerreros de la Paz".

This freestyle and Alvarez as a rider was inspired Cees for the visualisation of his own obituary card, depicting a knight on his steed with the jousting lance attacking a stave. "This is me, a knight in armour, getting rid of the unnecessary notes, brining music to its purist and best form," Slings told Eurodressage one week ago.

His most treasured possessions were his Caterham car and his very rare 1952 Grafton alto saxophone in mint condition.

Cees lived an adventurous life, filled with music, and respect from his musical colleagues. His brazen and extravert way of expressing himself often rubbed the wrong way, as Cees sometimes stayed oblivious to the impact his words. However he was always genuine, straight forward, and appreciative of the people in the small circle around him. He lived with a warm heart and savoured the small things in life.

In 2020 Eurodressage interviewed Cees for the corona interview series Hit and Run. When asked how he wants to be remembered he said, "by my children as a father who tried to be the best father; however I understand that I probably failed…. By my friends as friend you could rely on. And Google does the rest, true or not, that’s up to the ones who ever want to know who was me..."

He leaves behind two children, Mark and Vera.