Jaap Spaanderman
Jaap Spaanderman was a Dutch pianist, cellist, conductor, and teacher of piano and conducting. He was born in Gouda on 17 October 1896, the son of Lena van Eijk and Jacob Hendrikus Bastiaan Spaanderman Sr., an organist at Gouda's Great Church and a conductor.
Spaanderman studied cello with Isaac Mossel and piano with Joh. H. Sikemeier at the Rotterdam Music School. He continued his piano studies with Sarah Bosmans-Benedicts at the Amsterdam Conservatory, while also continuing cello lessons with Mossel, who had moved to Amsterdam. He received the Prix d'Excellence as a cellist in 1918 and as a pianist in 1920. During this period, he also studied singing with his father and took part in oratorios and operas, including Georges Bizet's Carmen.
In the early 1920s, he made two concert tours of the Dutch East Indies, one with the cellist Gérard Hekking. From 1922 to 1932 he taught piano at the Amsterdam Music Lyceum. He succeeded Evert Cornelis as pianist of the Concertgebouw Sextet and later played in the Concertgebouw Trio with Louis Zimmermann and Marix Loevensohn. He also studied conducting with Richard Hagel in Berlin.
Around 1930 Spaanderman shifted his work toward conducting, beginning with Philips's PHOHI Orchestra, which made radio broadcasts for the Dutch East Indies. From 1932 he conducted the Arnhem Orchestra Association, raising it to a high standard. Musicians including Jo Juda and Herman Krebbers later praised his knowledge of scores, precision, and attention to a work's atmosphere and character. He returned to the orchestra in 1947 and resigned in 1949.
He subsequently resumed teaching piano at the Amsterdam Music Lyceum. His pupils included Bart Berman, Albert Brussee, Theo Bruins, Stanley Hoogland, Jan Marisse Huizing, Guus Janssen, Hans Kox, Reinbert de Leeuw, Hans Vonk, Edo de Waart, and Lucas Vis.
Spaanderman married the violinist Alida Louise Meijer in 1922; they divorced in 1951. Later that year he married the piano teacher Erica Gerharda Duyvis. He died at the Rosa Spier House in Laren on 22 July 1985 and was cremated at Westgaarde.