I’m saddened by the news of the demise of Felix van Lamsweerde, one of Holland’s greatest experts on Indian classical music. I’ve known Felix for more than thirty years, we often met and spoke each other at ethnomusicological events and at concerts of Indian classical music. He passed away on Saturday 31st of July 2021.
During his career as curator ethnomusicology at the KIT Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam Felix made a huge number of recordings of mostly Indian classical music performances on audio tape, video and film, all of which – along with his writings, photos and other parts of his collection – has moved to the Musicology Department of the University of Göttingen in 2017*. Felix van Lamsweerde is also known for his great contributions to promote and popularize Indian classical music in The Netherlands and abroad.
His passing is a huge loss – he will be dearly missed.
RIP, dear Felix.
* For the record I’d like to add the following:
When Felix told me he’d been struggling to find a good home to properly house his large, unique collection – he’d tried unsuccessfully at institutions like the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum and the University of Amsterdam – I told him he should try abroad, and I suggested I could contact the musicology department of the University of Göttingen, where I saw good opportunities. I told him I could contact prof. Birgit Abels over there and tell her about his collection, asking her if Göttingen would be interested. Felix thought it was a good idea to contact Göttingen and so I did. Prof. Abels was very interested and was very keen to house the collection at her department. And so it happened: Felix’ great collection found a good destination at the Department of Musicology at the University of Göttingen. I’m glad I was able to help Felix in this way to find a good home for his fabulous collection.