Biography
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Born
5 November 1949
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Born In
Vlissingen, Zeeland, Netherlands
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Died
30 March 2016 (aged 66)
Bram Beekman (Vlissingen, November 5, 1949 – Middelburg, March 30, 2016), was a Dutch organist and composer.
Beekman studied organ from 1967 to 1972 at the Brabant Conservatory in Tilburg with Louis Toebosch. After obtaining various diplomas, including the soloist diploma, he continued his studies in Vienna with Anton Heiller. In 1975 he received the Prix d'Excellence.
In 1973 he took part in the international organ competition in Bruges, as part of the Festival Musica Antiqua, where he obtained Third Prize, ex aequo with Martin Lücker and Bernhard Marx.
In 1980 he became organ teacher at the Brabant Conservatory. In 1997 he became organist of the Oostkerk in Middelburg. He gave many concerts at home and abroad and regularly contributed to radio and TV recordings.
Concerts were regularly scheduled, at home and abroad. In 2008 he gave several concerts during an organ festival in Beijing (China) at The National Center for the Performing Arts.
Beekman has written compositions for organ, choir and orchestra.
He has recorded the complete organ oeuvre of Johann Sebastian Bach on fourteen baroque organs in the Netherlands (a total of nine double CDs from the LBCD label). The complete organ work of César Franck, played on the Cavaillé-Coll organ of the Cathédrale Jean-Baptiste in Perpignan (France), has been released on three CDs. In 2009 he recorded Bach's Orgelbüchlein (BWV 599-644), performed on the De Rijckere organ of the Oostkerk in Middelburg (label Prestare).
In 2014 he became a Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau. Beekman was active as an organist, composer and educator for more than 48 years.
He became ill in September 2015 and died at the end of March 2016 at the age of 66.
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