Dutch Canadian composer Rudi van Dijk dies at age 71

Made career in North America

TORONTO, Ontario - Culemborg, the Nether-lands-born composer and pianist Rudi M. van Dijk recently died at age 71 in England where he had lived the last number of years. Van Dijk had emigrated to Canada in 1953 and for two decades was employed at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

A student of Hendrik Andriessen and Léon Orthel, Van Dijk was 19 when his Sonatine for piano was performed during the international Gaudeamus Muziek Week. While living in Canada, he studied with U.S. composer Roy Harris. In 1966, Rudi van Dijk was appointed teacher of composition and piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Six years later, he was appointed teacher of composition and orchestration at Indiana University (USA), and in that same year took a similar post at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Van Dijk moved back to Europe in 1985, where his works gained more notoriety, also in the Netherlands. One of his best-known pieces - Concertante for flute, percussion, harp and string orchestra - has regularly been performed by philharmonics in the U.S. and Canada.

An accomplished concert pianist, Rudi van Dijk often performed with wellknown bariton Victor Braun.