René Damen, a Dutch citizen, pursued his native language studies at the University of Amsterdam.  After living in Belgium for six years, he relocated to the State of Maine in the U.S., where he resided for nearly three decades.

His career encompassed diverse roles, including high school teacher, advertising agency manager, software business founder, and innkeeper.  Despite being the seventh child in a non-musical family, music gradually became a pivotal aspect of his life, starting at the age of 15. However, he didn’t receive formal musical education until later in life when he was invited to the University of Southern Maine School of Music for a crash course of sorts and private lessons with his mentor prof. Daniel Sonenberg. Currently, René is retired and resides with his husband in Central Portugal.

He grew up in the era of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, and soon began writing pop songs by the dozens.  As a high-school teacher he wrote three school musicals and after leaving his teaching job two more commercial ones. He also wrote the theme song and a song per episode for a children’s program on national TV. In his thirties and forties, he primarily focused on running businesses and raising a child. Once his professional life settled down, he rediscovered his passion for music composition, particularly for the concert hall. Now in retirement, with all the necessary tools at his disposal, he spends a significant portion of his time endlessly composing pitches and adding notes to scores. René Damen is a member of ASCAP.