IN MEMORIAM KEES VELLEKOOP


Prof. Vellekoop was an outstanding musicologist in the Utrecht tradition. Born in 1940 as the son of recorder pioneer Gerrit Vellekoop, he studied at Utrecht University with Helène Nolthenius and started his career in the mid 1970s, teaching mainly Medieval music, and at the same time showing a great interest in the Baroque period.
His dissertation on the Dies Irae, published in 1978, is well known. During the last 15 years his main interest gradually moved to ecclesiastical and liturgical topics, resulting in many publications on Ordinals and their content, such as Processionals.
In spite of this specialisation he had a profound knowledge of all aspects of Medieval music and culture.Kees was an excellent teacher, always surrounded by students and young scholars. Appointed full professor in 1993, he guided many students on their first scholarly steps, and he supervised many Ph.D dissertations on a diversity of topics, among which were some really excellent ones.
Kees Vellekoop was founder of the Stichting voor Muziekhistorische Uitvoeringspraktijk (STIMU)and was still member of the board by the time of his death. He was also chairman of Stichting gele kraan and regularly made a strong point to get this symposium realised. His death, as tragic as unexpected, is an enormous loss for STIMU, Stichting gele kraan, the Faculty of Arts of Utrecht University and the Netherlands Research School for Medieval Studies. He died May 25 2002 in a traffic accident. We all miss him.





back to Stimu symposium