Wim Dirriwachter, born January 17, 1937 in ’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, studied Composition with Jan van Dijk, the piano with Jan Wijn and Music in Education with Cor de Man, all at the Brabant Conservatory. After finishing his studies there, he took up orchestral direction with Piet Ketting for several years. Between 1960 and 1975, he worked as a music teacher at the teacher training college in Tilburg. He founded the Tilburgs Vocaal Ensemble, which he conducted for five years. As conductor of the choir Toonkunstkoor Tilburg, he regularly performed with the regional symphony orchestra, Brabants Orkest. From 1975 to 1998, he worked at the Groningen Conservatory, teaching a major in Music in Education as well as courses in Music Theory and Composition.
As a composer, Dirriwachter has always gladly accepted commissions from practicing musicians. Thus he composed several works for choir and various instrumental casts. In addition, he composed all sorts of works, both orchestral and chamber music. Folk music is constant source of inspiration for him. He arranged hundreds of folksongs from different countries, observing the local colour, hidden in the oft modal melodies. In 2000 and 2015, his quest for folk songs brought him to Benin, West Africa, to study the traditional music there and make transcriptions for new compositions.