Among those present were his wife and Herman van Veen, his brother in the arts. It took place in the Utrecht Medical Centre where Erik was admitted to for further examination due to problems with his equilibrium.

Motivation

Erik van der Wurff has been an internationally respected musician, composer, arranger and producer since 1967. He has been Herman van Veen's steadfast accompanist on the piano for the past 40 years and they have worked together on some 120 CDs. Erik has been involved with Harlekijn Holland BV since it was founded in 1968. He has arranged and composed for, amongst others, Gerard Cox, John Denver, Toots Thielemans and Robert Long. He has produced and co-written music for a number of feature films, including Ciske de Rat. For children he co-wrote with Harry Sacksioni and Herman van Veen much of the music for the animated tv-series Alfred Jodocus Kwak. He also voluntarily contributes to a wide range of cultural and social activities such as serving on the selection committee of Children for Children and being a member of the jury of the Golden Harp. He is also involved with Keramuze, an initiative of the Art and Culture Foundation of Bilthoven. Erik van der Wurff, besides his professional activities, is very much committed to young people and music.

First photo: Rudi Gagel; other photos: Herman van Veen

ERIK VAN DER WURFF (1945) studied music (piano, flute and contrabass) at the Conservatory of Utrecht and has since been working as composer, conductor, arranger and pianist.

He composes music for theatre; movies (such as Van de Koele Meren des Doods and Ciske de Rat); television series (De Legende van de Bokkerijders, Coverstory, Achter de Lach); international animation series (such as Janosch Traumstunde and Alfred Jodocus Kwak); six musicals; one folk opera; chamber music and piano and symphonic repertoires.

Erik has conducted the “Residentie Orkest”, the “Noordhollands Filharmonisch Orkest”, the “Gelders Orkest”, the “VRT Philharmonisch Orkest”, the “Bruckner Orchester” (Linz, Oostenrijk), the “NDR Pops Orchestra” and The American Symphony Orchestra. Since March 2008 he has been conducting the “VSOP” orchestra in the area of Utrecht.

He has done musical arrangements in contemporary and more serious genres, for more than a 100 well known artist, including Herman van Veen, Robert Long, Jasperina de Jong, Gerard Cox, Stef Bos, Jaap van Zweeden, Anner Bijlsma, Emmy Verhey, the Soloists of the Philharmonia (London) and Kings College Choir (Cambridge). He has also written countless arrangements for television and cinema (De Tweeling, Sloophamer, Leef!, Pluk van de Petteflet, In Oranje, Gebak van Krul), including many orchestrations for the “Metropole Orkest”.

As pianist, he has accompanied Herman van Veen for more than 40 years. In addition to this, he has also performed with Vera Mann, Gerard Cox, Robert Long and Simone Kleinsma. Erik also performs concerts, of mainly his own work, as pianist. Furthermore, he has workshops for composing and music theory, specifically for beginners.

He is involved in many productions for which he has been awarded an Edison. He has also been awarded the Golden Dog from EMI, the Louis Davids Prize for “Opzij Opzij Opzij” (Aside), the Golden Harp from the Conamus Foundation, the Golden Heart from the city of Rotterdam, the Golden Nutcracker from the Norma Foundation and the Art and Culture Prize from the municipality of De Bilt. 2009 Erik van der Wurff was made Knight in the Order of Netherlands Lion.

He is the only Dutch composer who has had two of his productions performed on Broadway: the youth musical “TipTop Tommy Care a Lot” (Lincoln Centre, 1995) and the symphonic fairy tale “Santa meets the Ice Dragon” (Beacon Theatre, 2004).