The editors of Concertzender Actueel are very sad to report that pianist and composer Thijs Dercksen passed away on October 15th. Thijs was 62 years old.
Since May 2019, Thijs has written a column every other week for Actueel in which he explains music concepts and phenomena in a simple, light-hearted and playful way using fragments from his own composition, which he then plays in its entirety. He once said about this in an interview: “I don’t want to fall into technical terms and, on the other hand, I don’t want to sound childish. By listening to a piece of music, people sometimes understand better what I cannot explain in words.”
Thijs composed chamber music, symphonic music and choral work, but his heart lay mainly with the piano because he could then implement his ideas himself and especially “because you have good control over the timing,” as he said himself.
The editors of Actueel will greatly miss Thijs’ warm personality, his involvement in the program and of course his columns. We send our deepest condolences to his family.
