 As a bandsman, he also became a pupil (summer of 1955) of the American composer Roy Harris.On a regular basis in the 1950s and 60's, Van Dijk not only composed background music for educational programmes but used his improvisational skills as a pianist live on radio for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.This relationship would later culminate in the World premiere of his "Four Epigrams for Symphony Orchestra" (1962) with the CBC Symphony conducted by Walter Susskind as part of the CBC's National School Broadcast series "Finding Out about Music".