Walter van Hauwe is a blockflute player and music teacher. He was born in the Dutch city of Delft on 16 November 1948. He studied under Frans Brüggen at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague where he graduated with honours in 1969. Van Hauwe played traditional blockflute-literature not only as a soloist but also as a member of several specialised ensembles. He co-founded, together with Kees Boeke, ensembles as Quadro Hotteterre (1968) and Little Consort (1979), with Toyohiko Satoh (lute). He has performed i.a. with Gustav Leonardt, Nicolaus Harnoncourt and Frans Brüggen, playing the blockflute as well as the flauto traverso.

In 1971 Van Hauwe co-founded, with Frans Brüggen and Kees Boeke, the controversial, experimental blockflute-ensemble Sour Cream. The discoveries made here on blockflute-techniques and interpretation of a great variety of music styles, covering a period over six centuries, were ordered and written down by Van Hauwe in a three-volume professional method: ‘The Modern Recorder Player'. These books were published between 1981 and 1985 by Schott London and have been translated in multiple languages. His affinity with contemporary literature has only grown over the years and he inspired composers as Franco Donatoni, Isang Yun and many others to write for the blockflute.

Thanks to a short but intensive co-operation with the Japanese marimba phenomena Keiko Abe and later with the Maarten Altena Ensemble, specialised in contemporary improvised music with strong experimental jazz-influences, Van Hauwe developed a great interest in improvisation. With the theatre groups Hollandia and Veenfabriek he participated in several successful theatre productions.

From 1972 on, Van Hauwe was connected to the Conservatory of Amsterdam as a professor for blockflute. Here he set up in 1975 up a controversial education system that attracted many students from all over the world. Partly because of this success he received in 2002 the prestigious Dutch Prins Berhard Music Award for his complete oeuvre, after which the Conservatory of Amsterdam offered him the position of Head of Education Development.

Van Hauwe is frequently invited as a ‘coach’ in interpretation matters for almost any style of music, however in particular for contemporary and early musics, and with instruments of any kind. In that capacity he worked in the USA, Europe, Mexico, South Africa, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, Japan (i.a. together with Nobuko Imai and Seiji Ozawa), and many others.

In 1988 Van Hauwe published his comprehensive 'Catalogue of Contemporary Blockflute Music’ online (www.blokfluit.org). A few years later  the ‘Catalogue of Historical Recorder Repertoire’ followed. In all, a list of more than 9000 titles with original recorder works, spanning a period of six centuries.

Recordings can be heard on Telefunken's 'Das Alte Werk', Vanguard, Columbia-Denon, RCA, CBS, Attacca and Channel Classics/Moeck Verlag. Van Hauwe produced for Channel Classics several award-winning recordings.

Walter van Hauwe officially retired from the Conservatory van Amsterdam in 2013, but remains for the time being active in most of the activities described above.