Wim Statius Muller

Wim Statius Muller (Curaçao, 26 January 1930) is a Curaçaoan composer and pianist who has been nicknamed "Curaçao’s Chopin" for his romantic piano stylings. Although he is a Juilliard graduate, his musical career didn't begin in earnest until after he retired from a career in security and counterintelligence.

Statius Muller was born in 1930 on Curaçao, in Willemstad's Otrabanda district. He began piano lessons at age seven with Jacobo Palm, among others. He received a thorough musical education, entering in 1949 the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, where he studied piano and composition with Josef Raieff (the last pupil of Alexander Siloti).

He received his degree in 1954, and in 1955 began teaching piano and music history at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. In 1960, Statius Muller left his position at the University to accept a job as a civil servant, initially in Willemstad (Curaçao), where he was asked to collaborate in the creation of a security service. In 1972, he relocated to the Netherlands, later describing this move as follows:

He worked for a long time in a management position at the Domestic Security Service ("BVD") in The Hague and then at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

After his retirement in 1995, he returned to Curaçao, where he had more time for the piano.

Statius Muller performs regularly in the Netherlands Antilles, and also occasionally in the Netherlands, the United States and Poland.

Statius Muller was a student of Jacobo Palm, and has been influenced by Palm, whose grandfather Jan Gerard Palm initiated the popularity of salon music and Caribbean dance music based on classical music. Also, waltzes and Frédéric Chopin's mazurkas were played a lot in Curaçao, and have strongly influenced his work.

...
Wikipedia