William (Willy) Ostijn was born in Kachtem on 13 July 1913 and died in Roeselare on 30 March 1993. After attending school at the college of Izegem and the Small Seminary in Roeselare, he studied at St Joseph’s College in Torhout. At this school his talents at the piano and his structural insights were discovered and cultivated by Rev. Jozef Ghesquière, son of the composer Remi Ghesquière. At sixteen he went to the Lemmens Institute in Mechelen, where his studies included piano with Marinus de Jong and organ with Flor Peeters. The colourful personality of Jef Van Hoof made a particularly strong impression on him. After graduating with an organist’s diploma he went on to earn a teaching degree at the Royal Conservatory in Ghent, as well as first prizes in counterpoint, piano, chamber music and orchestral composition. Here it was in particular the Franck specialist Joseph Ryelandt who encouraged the young composer.
After his studies at the Lemmens Institute, Ostijn was for a time an assistant teacher and second organist at St Rumoldus’ Cathedral in Mechelen. From 1938 until he retired, he taught Music Education at the Royal Atheneum in Roeselare, a post he combined with that of piano teacher at the Municipal Music Academy in Izegem from 1939 to 1949. All his energies were directed towards composition and keyboard playing, however. Before the war, he achieved a degree of renown with the Willy Ostijn Piano Trio, which played both repertoire works and his own compositions.

Despite his connection with ecclesiastical Mechelen, Willy Ostijn composed relatively little sacred choral and organ music, a result of his association with the NIR (former Belgian broadcasting corporation) via Gaston Feremans (1942), and with the Belgian Radio Orchestra via Karel Albert (1948). For more than two decades (ca. 1950-1975) his atmospheric symphonic music and virtuoso concert works were played by virtually all the Flemish orchestras and broadcast both at home and abroad. Performances of his works were conducted by such figures as Paul Doulliez, Leonce Graz, Jozef Verhelst, Fernand Terby and Ernest Maes. The new organisation and profile of the public radio (starting in 1961-1962) led to the end of this period in his life, around 1975. Ostijn fell back on the local music world, continuing to provide songs and choral works.

Selective bibliography:
- H. HEUGHEBAERT, art. Ostijn, Willy in Algemene Muziekencyclopedie, 7, Haarlem, 1982, p. 331
- J.-P. OSTYN , art. William Maria Ostijn, in Ten Mandere. Heemkundige Periodiek van Izegem, 113, 39/1, Izegem, 1999, p. 27-32
- J. MAERTENS, art. Ostijn, William, in Lexicon van de Muziek in West-Vlaanderen, 1, 2000, p. 116-117

©2005 Peter Malisse, for Flanders Music Centre and MATRIX