1926
16 November born in Rotterdam
1946
state examinations in piano, music theory and music history, lessons with Louis Toebosch, Everhard van Beijnum and Henri Geraedts
1947‑49
composition lessons with Henk Badings
1949‑50
studies with Olivier Messiaen and Thomas de Hartmann in Paris
1950‑54
studies with ethnomusicologist Jaap Kunst at the University of Amsterdam
1954‑59 works as music director at the Netherlands Radio Union
1956
Prix Italia for radiophonic oratorio Job
1958
Prix des Jeunesses Musicales for String Quartet No. 1
1959‑86
professor of composition and head of the electronic studio at the Amsterdam (Sweelinck) Conservatory; his best‑known Dutch composition students are, besides his many students from abroad: Jan Vriend (1938), Jos Kunst (1936), Joep Straesser (1934), Bernard van Beurden (1933), Jacques Bank (1943), Daan Manneke (1939), Wim de Ruiter (1943), Tristan Keuris (1946), Guus Janssen (1951), Paul Termos (1952), Chiel Meijering (1954), Margriet Hoenderdos (1952), Alex Manassen (1950), and Sinta Wullur (1958)
1958-76
gave hundreds of radio lectures on contemporary music and non-western music
1961
first trip to India on assignment by the Dutch government to study classical Indian music, followed by many guest lectures, concerts and workshops throughout the world (a.o. in Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Australia, the Philippines, Iran, Soviet Union, United States, and most of the European countries), on the East‑West relation in music, contemporary music and his own music
1963
Prof. Van der Leeuw Prize for Symphonies of Winds
1963‑83
senior lecturer of twentieth‑century music at the University of Amsterdam
1964
book: ‘Muziek van de twintigste eeuw’ [Music of the twentieth Century] (Utrecht, Oosthoek), reprinted several times and later translated in Swedish, German and English
1969
Visser Neerlandia Prize for Haiku II
1970
City of Amsterdam Prize for Lamento Pacis
1971‑73
director of the Amsterdam Conservatory. Later artistic director
1974
first Musicultura convention at Queekhoven in Breukelen, on the theme of the Far East: China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Later Musicultura conventions were held in 1975 (Indonesia and the Philippines) and in 1976 (India and Iran)
1981
guest professor at the University of California, Berkeley (Ernest Bloch’s chair)
1982
Matthijs Vermeulen Prize for Car nos vignes sont en fleur
1983
Johan Wagenaar Prize for his entire oeuvre
1986‑96
living in France as independent composer
1993
Edison Prize for Chamber Music CD (Les adieux, Hommage à Henri, Trio)
1996
dies 31 May in his city of residence Paris
1997
Matthijs Vermeulen Prize (posthumously) for 3 Shakespeare Songs
2001
Edison Prize (posthumously) for CD ‘Choral Works’ (Prière, A cette heure du jour, Cloudy Forms, Car nos vignes sont en fleur, Transparence)
2005
book: ‘Muziek van de twintigste eeuw’ (Music of the Twentieth Century) appears in English translation at Amsterdam University Press and the University of Chicago Press (includes a 1995 essay written by Ton de Leeuw)