Pieter van der Staak (May 25, 1930, 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 of ...

– November 2, 2007, in

Zwolle Zwolle () is a city and municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Overijssel and the province's second-largest municipality after Enschede with a population of 130,592 as of 1 December 2021. Zwolle is o ...

) was a Dutch classical

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and professor of music.

Education

As a guitarist Pieter van der Staak was self-taught till he met Andrés Segovia in 1954. From 1955 to 1959 he studied guitar with Segovia and with Alirio Diaz in Sienna. With Emilio Pujol he studied the vihuela and ancient music notation. Both, Alirio Diaz and Emilio Pujol became lifelong friends of Pieter van der Staak. He studied composition with Wolfgang Wijdeveld and the guitar at the

Maastricht Academy of Music The Maastricht Academy of Music, Dutch: ''Conservatorium Maastricht'', located in the city of Maastricht, is one of nine music academies in the Netherlands. The academy is a faculty of the Zuyd University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool Zuyd in D ...

with Hans Lutz Niessen.

Activities

Pieter van der Staak combined his interest in writing for the guitar with teaching activities and concertising. He made several LP records with i.e. the well-known singer Willy Brill, the tenor Arjan Blanken and his wife Maria Hol, a professional violoncellist. With Willy Brill and with Maria Hol, he gave concerts all over the world. Besides his many activities Pieter van der Staak was the 1st professor of guitar at the Municipal Music Highschool ArtEZ in Zwolle (Netherlands) where he trained and educated several generations of fine classical guitarists. Pieter van der Staak also established the well-known Dutch International Guitarweeks Zwolle. A festival regarded as one of the oldest and best known guitar courses. Here young and talented guitar students can study guitar techniques, interpretation and stage presentation under the guidance of international renowned guitarists.

Compositions

He composed a large number of chamber music, among which are works for string quartet, clarinet quintet and cello trio. He wrote many didactic pieces for one up to four guitars because he felt involved with the development of new didactical material. Besides compositions for cello ensemble and accordion orchestra, he composed music for less common combinations such as guitar, flute and clarinet. He wrote many works for guitar teaching, published by Ars Nova (Sweden), Hortensia (Paris), Suvini Zerboni (Milano) and Broekmans & Van Poppel (Amsterdam). Concertino III, for solo guitar and guitar quartet (1970) is published by Donemus. Recently the Canadian publishing house Les Productions d'OZ issued several unknown works composed by Pieter van der Staak.

External links

Text with photos: * https://web.archive.org/web/20110724161209/http://www.mandolineorkest.nl/informatie/enpieter.htm Text with photos and music sample: * https://web.archive.org/web/20110721185102/http://www.mandolineorkest.nl/samples/enstaak.htm Pieter van der Staak as the founder of the 'International Guitarweeks Zwolle' - https://web.archive.org/web/20050211080929/http://www.guitarfestivalzwolle.nl/ Pieter van der Staak - donemus.nl https://web.archive.org/web/20061001024435/http://www.donemus.nl/componist.php?id=280 {{DEFAULTSORT:Staak, Pieter van der 1930 births 2007 deaths Dutch classical guitarists Dutch male guitarists Dutch composers Musicians from The Hague 20th-century guitarists 20th-century Dutch male musicians