Improvising should be a second nature to organists, says Henco de Berg by Hans Fidom

Hans Fidom Improvising should be a second nature to organists, says Henco de Berg
Het ORGEL 100 (2005), nr. 3, xx-xx [summary]

In September 2004, Henco de Berg was appointed professor of organ improvisation at the Brabant Conservatory at Tilburg. De Berg, who is blind, believes strongly in the ability to play the important organ works of the past centuries by heart. ‘This way,’ he says, ‘the student develops the best intuition for realising the best balance between structure and content.’ Improvisations by organists like Marcel Dupré and Pierre Cochereau are important references for De Berg, as well as the way these masters taught the art of improvisation; with regard to the Netherlands, De Berg mentions Arie J. Keijzer and Piet Kee as inspiring musicians. Essential to De Berg’s way of teaching is that he focuses on the artistic input of the student: ‘They can play very well’, he explains, ‘but actually making music all by yourself belongs definitely to a higher level.’ De Berg’s ‘improvisation class’ counts four students, who have already acquired their master’s degrees. It is characterised by its focus on concert improvisations.