Liuwe Tamminga

Liuwe Tamminga (25 September 1953 – 28 April 2021) was a Dutch organist and harpsichordist, known for his

performances of Italian Early Music.

Liuwe Tamminga was born in Hemelum.

He received his musical education at the Groningen Conservatory and obtained his diploma in 1977 under Wim van Beek, after which he went to study in Paris with André Isoir and Jean Langlais, and eventually in Italy with Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini.

From 1982 onwards, he was the organist at the Basilica di San Petronio in Bologna, which contains historic organs by Lorenzo da Prato (1471–1475) and Baldassarre Malamini (1596).

He was the Curator of the San Colombano Museum – Tagliavini Collection in Bologna, a unique collection of instruments – both for its quality and for the number of instruments shown – inaugurated in 2010.

Mostly dating from the sixteenth through the nineteenth century, the instruments include clavichords, organs, harpsichords, spinets, pianos, and automatic instruments, as well as a few wind and folk instruments.

He died in Bologna on 28 April 2021, aged 67.

He shared this position for many years with Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini who died in 2017.

His performances of Renaissance and Baroque music, especially Italian, earned him the praise of specialized critics, as well as many awards.

He held concerts all over the world and taught master classes in the most important early music institutions (at the Academy for Italian Organ Music in Pistoia, at the Haarlem Summer Academy for Organists, in Boston etc.).

For many years he has collaborated with distinguished early music directors and performers, such as Frans Brüggen, Bruce Dickey, Sergio Vartolo and with such respected ensembles as the Concerto Palatino and Odhecaton.

He contributed to the rediscovery and appreciation of less well-known composers, such as Fiorenzo Maschera, Marco Antonio Cavazzoni and Jacques Buus, and has published editions of works by Cavazzoni and Buus, among others.

He recorded two compact discs of organ works by Puccini who was an organist in his early years.