This was quite a shock and I'm still rather overwhelmed by it. Michel Dutrieue, former colleague of Klassiek Centraal and among other things very committed to his own blog 'Stretto' is no more. He passed away on 21 May. According to his wishes, he was cremated in silence and his ashes were scattered over the North Sea. The sea which he, as a resident of Oostende, loved so much. When I was with him to discuss all sorts of things and the weather permitted, he would always choose the elegant terrace of the Thermae Palace Hotel, with a view of the North Sea with which he has now united himself forever.
Michel had encyclopedic knowledge and was passionate about all art forms, with classical music as his main interest and especially Richard Wagner. After writing for Klassiek Centraal for about five years, he chose to start his own blog because he wanted to bring his message across on more than just subjects related to 'only' classical music.
In some ways Michel was rather a loner, a strange fish in the cultural pond, but what knowledge he had and a taste for nothing but the very best that was never good enough. He gave many lectures and courses on, among other things, classical music, but also on other cultural subjects. Every conversation with him was engaging, reading him at times fascinating.
On Stretto you can read the following curriculum
"Michel Dutrieue studied at the Royal Music Conservatories of Brussel and Gent. Since 1985 he was a teacher/course guide for literature, music history, philosophy, art history and music analysis. He started as a violinist in the then West-Flemish Orchestra and in the early '80s, he led the Ballroom ensemble, "Baby loves Mambo", in Gent. Between 1985 and 2005 he was a contributor to BRT 3, Radio 3 and Klara and was a guest speaker on Dutch radio in Hilversum. During that period he was also a classical music teacher at the Training Institute in Oostende. In 1990 his book "Eros & Thanatos in het fin-de-siècle-Wenen (BRT edition) was published. He led the four-part mixed choir "De Profundis" for a period of ten years and was listed as a composer in the "Lexicon van Vlaamse componisten". In Gent he had his own opera club for 10 years for which he gave evening-length reviews of the productions of Vlaamse Opera. He was a member of the association of the Belgian Music Press and has been a member of the music assessment committee of the minister of culture since November 2012."