Bert Mooiman
Pianist, organist, church musician and music theorist Bert Mooiman studied at the Royal Conservatory (The Hague). He obtained the solo diplomas piano (with Theo Bruins) and organ (with Wim van Beek, improvisation with Bert Matter) cum laude, and received the Fock medal for his outstanding artistic achievements. He won prizes at international organ competitions in Groningen and Ljubljana. He concluded his main subject music theory in 2003 with the article ‘Olivier Messiaen and the French harmony’ which was awarded the Martin J. Lürsen Prize.
From 1993 to 2000 he worked as a piano soloist for Dutch National Ballet. Since 2000 he has been a teacher of music theory, piano and improvisation and a research supervisor at the Royal Conservatoire. In 2021 he obtained his PhD at Leiden University with the thesis ‘An Improvisatory Approach to Nineteenth-Century Music’. He is involved in various international projects on improvisational education, and has been a guest lecturer in London, Bucharest and Graz, among others. He publishes on music theoretical topics and lectures for HOVO at Leiden University. As a pianist Bert Mooiman performs both solo and in chamber music. He is also editor of the magazine Piano Bulletin of the European Piano Teachers Association. Since 1989 he has been organist of the Nieuwe Badkapel (The Hague), where he was closely involved in the restoration of the Van Dam organ from 1926. In this church he also has access to a historic Pleyel piano and an Alexandre harmonium. Until 2011 he was also titular organist of the Grote Kerk in Breda. As organist, Bert Mooiman is a regular guest of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
