Biography:

Stanislas Deriemaeker ( Nukerke , 26 January 1932 – July 2024 ) was a Flemish organist and composer .

Deriemaeker studied at the Royal Conservatory in Ghent, where he won first prizes in music theory, organ, music history, written and practical harmony, a second prize in counterpoint and the first prize in fugue. In 1956 he was awarded the higher diploma in organ, always under the direction of professor Gabriël Verschraegen . In 1961 he was awarded the Virtuosity Prize of the Belgian Government in Brussels. Furthermore, thanks to two scholarships from the Ministry of National Education and Culture, he studied in 1963 with the French organist Jean-Jacques Grünenwald in Paris and in 1972 Spanish and Portuguese organ music in Lisbon with professor MS Kastner. As an organist, Deriemaeker worked from 1960 in Antwerp at the Sint Jozefskerk and from 1962 he became the titular organist of the Antwerp Cathedral as successor to Alexander Papen . In 1963 he was co-founder of the non-profit organisation Antwerp Cathedral Concerts , a concert association that promotes religious music and in particular organ music.

In 1968 he was co-founder and from 1969 to 2002 musical advisor of the organ concert cycle in Melsele .

Deriemaeker was a teacher of music history at the music academies of Dendermonde and Deurne . He taught as an organ course monitor at the Ghent Conservatory and in 1968 he succeeded Flor Peeters as organ teacher at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp. He remained there until his retirement in 1997. He also taught organ at the Lemmens Institute and music writing at the musicology department of the Catholic University of Leuven .

Deriemaeker gave about a thousand concerts at home and abroad. He was a guest in England, Ireland, Switzerland, France, the United States and Canada, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea. There are several CDs of him played on the Schyven and Metzler organs of the cathedral of Antwerp, the Spanish organ of Melsele and the Verbuecken organ in Tessenderlo . He composed mainly for organ.

He served as a jury member at the International Organ Competitions in Bruges, Haarlem (Netherlands), Dordrecht (Netherlands), Linz (Austria), St. Albans (United Kingdom) and Nuremberg (Germany).

Deriemaeker died in July 2024 at the age of 92. [1]

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