As guitarist he was self-taught. During his military service he started playing the guitar seriously and remained faithful to this instrument with brief interruptions, although he studied oboe and piano at the Conservatory in The Hague and learnt violin, but it was the guitar that he loved very much. He lived with it, often an adventurous life. He wanted to join to Spain and was already in Lyon when in 1936 the Civil War broke out. He traveled through Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Denmark and gave concerts in all these countries. He played for the Residentie stage (The Hague) in “Figaro's Wedding”, for the radio, alone or with the well-known rumba band Juan Tejada. His role models were the Spanish cellist Gaspar Cassadó and Andrés Segovia.
Tigges practiced eight hours the day and so he was able to give concerts since 1946 with works of Bach, Händel, Mozart, Frescobaldi, Sor, Albéniz, Turina, Moreno Torroba, Ponce and others. From 1956 until 1971 he was guitar teacher on the Rotterdam Conservatorium and The Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague. One of his better known pupils are Louis Ignatius Gall (1936-2016), Aldri Troost (*1936), Jim ten Boske (*1946), Henk Westhiner and Bobby Rootveld (*1981).
(Rainer Stelle)