Born in Brabant (The Netherlands), he emigrated with his family to Australia in 1955 and, after part time music studies and private tuition, he left Australia in 1970 for Europe, graduating in Conducting in 1972 at the Graz Music University, Austria.
In 1973 he returned to Australia and founded the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, the nucleus of the Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra, which he founded in 1975. He has since conducted this Orchestra in more than 350 concerts in almost 150 cities throughout Australia (mainly in co-operation with Rotary Clubs). Between 1974 and 1999 he was Music Director/Assistant Conductor/Administrator of Orchestras with the Edgley organisation, working with many of the international ballet and opera companies which have visited Australia and New Zealand during that period.
Major projects he has worked on included:
* Music Director, conductor and arranger for 'Australian Night At The Proms', at the Sydney Super Dome 5 October 2001 with the 80-member Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra and The Proms Chorus.
* Music Director, arranger and composer of the 'ANZAC International Military Tattoo' (in 1999 Sydney Entertainment Centre and 2006 Sydney Super Dome) for which he composed the 'Tattoo Fanfare' for three brass ensembles.
* Music and Artistic Director for the arena production of Aida, which premiered in Singapore in September 1996 and performed in Perth (Oct 96), Auckland (Feb 97) and Brisbane (Sep 97).
In 1994 he wrote and conducted the orchestral programme 'The Beatles Revisited' which was performed in both Melbourne and Sydney with the Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra. He was Music Director and Conductor for the Rudolf Nureyev 1991 Australian Tour and the 'Stars of the Bolshoi Ballet' 1992 Australian Tour, during which he conducted the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. He conducted the Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra for two seasons at the Jakarta Hilton and in 1992 travelled to Russia where he had been invited to conduct the Moscow Philharmonic and Yalta Symphony Orchestras.
As composer he has written two film scores, the orchestral tone poem In Memoriam; String Quartet no.1; three ballet scores for string quartet and percussion, Three Greek Dances for orchestra; Children's Suite for children's choir, tenor and orchestra; a children's opera Pinocchio; The Singing Soldiers (from 'Ginger Mick') and Spring Song (from 'The Sentimental Bloke') by Australian poet C.J.Dennis and a number of other works and many orchestrations.