Willem Tanke (b. 1959) studied organ and improvisation with Jan Welmers, music theory with Joep Straesser and electronic music with Ton Bruynel at Utrecht Conservatory. In 1985, he finished his studies with the Performance Diploma for Organ with full marks (the grade of 10 and honours), and also with diplomas for music theory and improvisation.

In the early part of his career, he specialized in organ works by Olivier Messiaen, Max Reger and contemporary Dutch composers. His CD recordings of Messiaen's oeuvre, Reger's Variationen und Fuge über ein Originalthema Op. 73 and organ works by Jan Welmers, Ton Bruynel and Roderik de Man have been critically acclaimed.

In the past few years, Willem Tanke became increasingly known as an improviser and a performing composer. His CDs My friend the Indian and other pieces, Imaginary Day, Two Wind Fantasies and Meditations for a Lent show an original and innovative way of organ playing. Recently, he started making recordings as an improvising and composing pianist for an artistic PhD research at Leiden University, called A new approach to playing keyboard instruments.

Willem Tanke was a professor of organ as a main subject at Utrecht University of Professional Arts Education from 1988 until 2000. Since 2001, he has been teaching at Rotterdam Conservatoire; actually as a professor of organ as a main subject, improvisation and theory.