Jeroen van Luiken-Bakker was born on may 30th 1981 in IJmuiden (Velsen), the Netherlands; real name Jeroen Bakker. Jeroen took one year of (then) mandatory recorder lessons as young child prior to taking keyboard -not piano- lessons from Mr. Peter Stam at the Heemskerk School of Music between 1991 and 2002. In that era Jeroen started to compose his own music, at first he started out by putting existing music together and eventualy wrote his first composition in 1998 at the age of 17. Currently Jeroen is under the 'reasoning and guidance' of esteemed composer Mr. Paul Corfield Godfrey (Wales). Jeroen’s musical works include a 'Requiem for Spock', for Vulcan lyrette and Earth violoncello, dedicated to the memory of Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy and a setting of the 'Dies irea dies illa' poem for orchestra and choir. Jeroen also set to music a few poems from the Frysian translation of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (as respectively translated by Anne Tjerk Popkema and Liuwe H. Westra). Jeroen's more recent works include a setting of Satie’s Trois Gymnopédie arranged for violincello and harp and a series of Explorations based on a ground by Matt K. Ellul for piano solo, know as ‘Destination known’. A complete list of finished works can be found at his website.
Jeroen grew up in the village of Heemskerk (the Netherlands) and went to special educational primary school and thereafter went to Clussius College Secondary agricultural school and finally to Clusius College Hoorn MLTuS college of agriculture where he studied (TMR) Technician, Forest-, Park- and Greenkeeping and Tourism. Jeroen worked as an local journalist, editor and presenter at two local radio stations and has worked for many years as a cleaner and exterminator. He was diagnosed with dyslexia in 2001 and with autism (ass) in 2008. Both of which explained the many troubles Jeroen had to face as child. Troubles which include being bullied much of his life and battleing a chronic depression. In March of 2013 he published a book on autism in collaboration with 27 so called Autithors. He currently works as a writer, poet, translator, and has further aspirations as a composer, and curently runs his own publishing and cleaning company.
His website: www.jeroenvanluikenbakker.nl
