Bernard Bartelink

Bernard Gerard Maria Bartelink was born in Enschede on 24 November 1929 and trained as an organist in the Netherlands. He studied organ with Albert de Klerk at the Institute of Church Music in Utrecht between 1948 and 1950, then continued with Anthon van der Horst and with Léon Orthel, the latter for composition, at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he won the prize for excellence in 1954.

His career combined performance with teaching and the practice of improvisation. In 1961 he won the International Improvisation Competition in Haarlem, a competition on whose jury he later served. He taught at the Institute of Church Music in Haarlem from 1965 to 1977 and at the Amsterdam Conservatory from 1973 to 1989. In 1971 he was appointed organist of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Bavo in Haarlem.

Bartelink was distinguished as a performer of German Baroque repertoire and of French music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He performed in much of Europe and toured the United States, Russia, Australia and New Zealand. He premièred works by Daan Manneke, Léon Orthel and Bjorne Sløgedal, and championed the music of Charles Tournemire. As a composer he cultivated church music, works for organ and chamber music, as well as a song cycle for low voice and organ, De Zaligsprekingen, commissioned by the city of Amsterdam.