"The Netherlands lost an important composer on Friday 31 May 1996, when Ton de Leeuw died in Paris. He had lived there for the last ten years of his life. Ton de Leeuw was born in Rotterdam on November 16th, 1926. He was not only the composer of a highly refined and rich musical oeuvre, but was also an influential thinker, teacher and writer with a distinctly cosmopolitan outlook."