Dirk Jr Keetbaas

Keetbaas, Dirk Jr

Dirk Jr. Keetbaas. Flutist, record producer, composer, b Scheveningen, Holland, 20 Jun 1921, naturalized Canadian 1930, d Calgary 27 Jul 1995. He was the son of Dirk Keetbaas Senior (b Amsterdam 1895, d Calgary 16 Jun 1988), an Ottawa violist and conductor. Keetbaas Junior played in Ottawa 1940-5 with the Central Band of the RCAF, in Toronto 1946-53 in chamber groups, and with the TSO and the CBC Symphony Orchestra, and in Winnipeg 1953-68 as principal flute with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the CBC Winnipeg Orchestra. He premiered S.C. Eckhardt-Gramatté's Duo Concertante with the composer as violinist, and some of Leslie Mann's compositions, including Suite for Flute Solo. He directed 1956-66 the Dirk Keetbaas Players - Keetbaas (flute), Alan Williams (oboe), Leslie Mann (clarinet), Norman Sherman, succeeded by Thomas Elliott (bassoon), John Scecina (french horn) - including on their programs many Canadian premieres. Keetbaas can be heard as flutist (in Mann's Five Improvisations, with the pianist Ada Bronstein) and as composer-flutist (Three Miniatures for Solo Flute, 1963, a piece which has entered the flute repertoire) on the recording Music and Musicians of Canada III (1966; RCI 215/RCA CCS 1009). He can also be heard as conductor on Music of Mannheim (1967, CBC SM 41). He was the flutist on E.gré plays E.gré (1981, World Records WRC1-1596-1599). He also composed a Quintet for Winds (1961) and the orchestral overture Woodhaven (1965), and made several arrangements for woodwind quintet (eg, of Telemann's Suite in B Minor and Beethoven's Quintet in E Flat Major, Opus 4). In 1968 he became a producer and co-ordinator for CBC SM recordings in Toronto. From 1980, he taught; he retired from CBC Toronto in 1985 and moved to Calgary, where he taught composition privately. Keetbaas donated his music collection to the University of Manitoba.

Writings

'The woodwind quintet: an historical survey,' (Winnipeg 1991)