Arie van der Beek was born in the Netherlands in 1964. He studied with Heinz Friesen at the conservatory in The Hague. He then completed his studies in Brussels with Paul Dombrecht.
As a student he played with several Dutch orchestras such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and in the Brabant Orchestra as a permanent substitute for the first oboe.
Since 1989 he has been playing as first oboe in the orchestra of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. He plays regularly in other orchestras such as the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and the Symfonie Orkest Vlaanderen. He plays in the chamber orchestra “Casco Phil”. He plays in several chamber music groups such as Hermesensemble and Pocketorchestra of the OBV.
He regularly coaches in the Youth Orchestra Flanders and the orchestra Frascati. He also teaches oboe at the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven. He has given several masterclasses in Spain: in Valencia, Alicante, Castellón and Albacete at the superior level and in Alicante,
Ontinyent and Albaida at the professional level. He has also taught in Leipzig at “die Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartoldy”.