Loek Dikker - pianist and composer
Loek Dikker is a pianist and composer. After studying classical piano, he began his career as a jazz musician when he saw a concert by Horace Silver and Sonny Rollins on television in 1959, and he has written extensively for film, stage, modern dance, and symphony orchestra. In 1960 he gave his first jazz concert with his own piano trio, in a jazz and poetry performance together with Godfried Bomans. Later he played in the bands of Hans Dulfer and Theo Loevendie. He also developed his own music theater pieces with a mixed ensemble of wind and string players. He also played with Oliver Nelson and Cannonball Adderley, and toured with Don Byas. In the mid-1970s he founded the Waterland Ensemble, which continues to perform in various formations to this day.
He usually writes his film music for symphony orchestra, such as the film Rosentrasse by Margarethe von Trotta (2003, Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under Jaap van Zweden). The music of this film brought him the CineMusica Award 2004 for the best European film music during the Festival in Ravello, Italy. In 1990 he received a Golden Calf for his Dutch oeuvre (including The Fourth Man by Paul Verhoeven). For his work in Hollywood (including producers Aaron Spelling and Joel Schumacher) he received the Saturn Award in 1992 for the Paramount production Body Parts. He regularly gives concerts and composes his opera trilogy Transformations.
Loek also held various board positions in organizations related to jazz music and in the (international) composer world, where he also organized events. For the Music Institute MultiMedia, which he co-founded, he developed projects with new (film) music by sometimes 20 composers in close collaboration with the other MiMM board members (all music authors). This in collaboration with the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and also for the AAA Series of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and together with the EYE Film Institute for the Museum Night 2013. The project Mutual Wave Machine premiered there, and in 2016 received the award “ Best Art/Science” project from the Scientific American. These events were all very successful, not least because of the enthusiastic collaboration between the many composers.
Duo Loek Dikker (piano) & Friedmar Hitzer (violin)
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