Harry Bannink (10 April 1929, Enschede – 19 October 1999, Bosch en Duin) was a Dutch composer, arranger and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

. He wrote over 3,000 songs. Bannink studied at the Royal Conservatory in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

, receiving his degree in 1946. He started his musical career in the late fifties, when he joined a small dance-orchestra as pianist. His compositions for the play "Het staat u vrij" (Delftsch Studenten Corps, 1958) where his first works for the theatre. Later he would write music for many songs by

Wim Sonneveld Willem "Wim" Sonneveld (; 28 June 1917 – 8 March 1974) was a Dutch cabaret artist and singer. Together with Toon Hermans and Wim Kan, he is considered to be one of the 'Great Three' of Dutch cabaret. Sonneveld is generally viewed as a Dutch cu ...

Wieteke Van Dort Louisa Johanna Theodora van Dort (born May 16, 1943 in Surabaya, Dutch East Indies) is a Dutch actress, comedian, singer, writer and artist of Indo (Eurasian) descent. On April 29, 1999, Queen Beatrix appointed her ''Knight of the Order of Orang ...

and especially Annie M.G. Schmidt. . He wrote music for many Dutch TV-shows, including '' Ja zuster, nee zuster'', ''t Schaep met de 5 poten'', ''

Sesamstraat ''Sesamstraat'' () is a Dutch television series in the Netherlands, and a spin-off of the U.S. children's program ''Sesame Street''. In its early days the show was broadcast in Flanders (Belgium) as well. It is the second longest-running foreign ...

'', and ''De Stratemakeropzeeshow''. Since 1973 he worked with Edwin Rutten on the weekly children's TV show ''De film van ome Willem'' (in which he appeared as head of the music-ensemble on every episode) and writer

Willem Wilmink Willem Wilmink (; Enschede, 25 October 1936 – 2 August 2003) was a Dutch poet and writer. He was best known for the large number of songs he wrote for popular children programs and his accessible, straightforward poetry. Life and career Wilmi ...

, with whom he wrote a lot of songs for the Dutch children's education programme ''

Het Klokhuis ''Het Klokhuis'' (Dutch for "The Applecore") is a daily documentary show for primary school children and young teenagers produced by ntr of the Netherlands. It first aired in 1988. It is broadcast every weekday at 18:25 on NPO 3 and lasts abou ...

''. Together with Annie M.G. Schmidt he wrote several Dutch musicals. Later, he would also write the music for the funeral of Schmidt. Among his last musical activities were a CD - on which he sang some of his own compositions - and a book with piano-arrangements of all the songs from the series ''Ja zuster, nee zuster''. He died, aged 70, of cardiac arrest and was buried at the Nieuwe Algemene Begraafplaats, Woudenbergseweg in Zeist. In 2000, a documentary about Harry Bannink and his work was released on Dutch television. In his birthplace Enschede, a theatre was named after him, as was a street in Amsterdam and Utrecht.

References

1929 births 1999 deaths 20th-century composers 20th-century Dutch pianists Dutch composers Dutch music arrangers Dutch pianists Musicians from Overijssel People from Enschede Royal Conservatory of The Hague alumni {{Netherlands-composer-stub