Gijs van Dijk
I’m convinced that improvisation and composition are equal expressions of creative music.
The pleasure of composing and improvising and playing music is paramount. Gijs van Dijk, born in 1954, musician/composer.
At the Hilvesums Muziek Lyceum he studied classical guitar, and he followed the new subsidiary subject; jazz guitar
On the first day at the conservatory, he and the composer Tristan Keuris entered through the revolving door. Both for the first lesson; Tristan as a teacher and Gijs as a student. They became good friends and Gijs continued to study with Tristan for 15 years. Theory and composition. At first in Hilversum and later on at the Utrecht Conservatory
Commissions for new compositions followed one another with great regularity. mostly for musicians with a national reputation.
He has mainly composed for chamber music ensembles, a lot of saxophone music but also a cantate based on texts from letters, about the life of Camille Claudel
When he got a older, he came into contact with a national network of younger musicians, who regularly ordered new works. Which led to a series of new compositions all called “Rendering” with a consecutive number.
As an improvising musician there were some notable successes in the eighties. As bassist/guitarist in the internationally very successful freefunk group“de Noodband met Greetje Bijma” during their major European jazz festival tour. At that time the “Gijs van Dijk Trio” also was a remarkable voice in the Dutch improvisation scene.
Gijs played with pianist Arend Nijenhuis for 40 years, a few CDs were released, which sometimes received remarkable reactions in the press.
The last decade he played pop music in the Lofties and as Dizz Guizze. And lately he started working with a stringquartet in the group Unico.
He has worked for 30 years as the music teacher at the Ivko school in Amsterdam. The art secondary school of the Netherlands. Where he accompanied countless young musicians on their first steps towards a career in music.
From 2005 until 2017 he was a board member of national professional associations for improvising musicians and composers. He did also produce a monthly radio program for 9 years with live performances from the bimhuis, for the “concert zender”
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prelude bes mineur - Gijs van Dijk