Background
Schenck was born in Amsterdam and baptized in a Catholic hidden church.
Schenck was born in Amsterdam and baptized in a Catholic hidden church.
He became a renowned virtuoso viola da gamba player. His compositions included music for a Dutch Singspiel, Bacchus, Ceres en Venus, which can claim to be the first opera in Dutch, and from which songs were published in 1687, as well as works for the viola da gamba. Around 1696 he accepted an appointment to the court of Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine in Düsseldorf.
After Johann Wilhelm"s death in 1716, the electoral court moved to Mannheim.
His last known published work appeared in 1712. He is no longer mentioned in the list of court musicians compiled in 1717.